Owari no Chronicle

Volume 10, Chapter 7: Victorious Treachery

And the cry turns to static

The nighttime battle in the mountains began with the sound of breaking metal.

As Ikkou swung his sword diagonally downwards, Izumo defended.

Kazami saw him forcibly twist the motorcycle’s accelerator.

The large-displacement Kawasaki obediently responded to the sudden “full speed ahead” command.

The back wheel skidded a bit and pushed the bike forward.

While the back wheel pushed forward at full speed, the front wheel lost and rose up.

As if assisting the motorcycle’s standing motion, Izumo swung up the hand holding the accelerator.

The rising vehicle was knocked toward Ikkou as if it had been kicked away.

Izumo then wrapped his right arm around Kazami’s waist and kicked off the seat to jump backwards with her.

…Wow.

Izumo forcibly rotated around once and entered a low landing stance. She spun with him and her vision pointed in the same direction as his.

That was the front.

The front wheel rose like a snake’s head and the motorcycle crashed into Ikkou.

Or more accurately, into his sword.

With the sound of scraping metal, the motorcycle was split in two along a horizontal line.

A silver line ran from left to right through the center of the seat.

The vehicle was made from plenty of metal, various components, and a thick frame, but it was all bisected as easily as tofu.

Kazami thought to herself while watching the heavy metal pieces collapse to either side.

…Is this a dream?

About a month before, she had been given a similar dream while fighting Roger of American UCAT.

In that dream, the motorcycle had been split apart by a strange power.

But that had been a false dream.

This was not.

“So you’re an enemy.”

With that comment, Izumo removed his right arm from her waist.

His eyes were looking past the motorcycle on the ground. They were trained on Ikkou.

“Come.”

The unusually low tone to his voice worried Kazami a little.

“Kaku.”

She called out to him, but he did not turn toward her.

Another voice then supported her worry.

“Now, how about I show you my brother’s fixed concept? Mitsuaki.”

Ikkou’s words were followed by a voice resembling the one produced by her own throat. This was the voice of a concept.

The voice spoke to another world that rejected the current one.

—There is no mutual understanding.

With the sound of shattering glass, the world transformed.

After hearing the concept text, Kazami lost everything.

…Eh?

She understood what the concept meant. She could no longer comprehend any information the external world sent her way. It was a version of 2nd-Gear’s Art of Walking that encompassed the entire external world and could not be broken.

She understood the idea, but…

…It can’t be broken?

She could see and she could hear, but she could not understand what was happening around her.

She could see Ikkou standing beyond the wreckage of the motorcycle.

She could see him holding the Azure Dragon Sword.

However, she could not understand what it was she was seeing and hearing.

“Is this…!?”

Her ability to comprehend how she felt about her surroundings was completely lacking.

…What about Kaku!?

Wanting to know what he was doing, she turned left, but then she gasped.

Why she gasped was simple: she could not grasp that he was to her left.

He was to her left. She could see him there.

Nevertheless, she could not find him. Normally, seeing him would provide her with the information that “he is there”, but that information would not reach her.

As she turned left toward him, her gaze continued right on past him. She had already turned to the dark night behind her.

…I don’t know where he is.

She could not tell if he was there or not. To sum it up…

…We have no mutual understanding.

This was a world of only her own information.

She had nothing to compare to, so she could not even conclude that she was wrong.

Suddenly, her memories called forth a similar fact. Something much like this had happened recently.

…When Team Leviathan was ordered to temporarily disband.

She rebuked herself for thinking about that now, but she could not stop her thoughts.

“I can’t understand it, I can’t find a solid answer, and the world is absolute.”

…What can I possibly do!?

While asking herself that, she still decided to move.

But that was when she heard a voice. However, it was a voice that’s very existence she could not comprehend.

While desiring her next action, she heard that incomprehensible voice.

“Can you not move?”

She heard it, but she did not know what it said.

She faced forward. She knew the enemy was most likely there. She turned to face not an enemy she could see but one she could predict was there.

But just as she tried to step toward that enemy…

“…”

She could not move.

No. The truth was she did not want to move.

She knew why.

If she stayed there, she could at least know where the enemy and Izumo had been at first.

…But if I take even a single step, I won’t even know where I am.

The thought of losing her own reference point made her shudder and panic.

She knew she had to move, but her body was trapped by the fear of not knowing where she was going.

The pressure in the bottom of her feet told her the ground was below them.

“But I don’t know where the enemy is!”

If she lifted a foot, she would no longer even know the ground was there. Like carelessly taking a wrong step on a staircase, she might not know where to step and miss the ground altogether.

Then she would fall and not even be able to stand.

…Dammit.

Her anger formed words.

“Why? Why did it all have to end up like this!?”

She felt urgency in her gut due to a variety of things and she let out the thoughts that could not reach anyone.

“Why!?”

“What is the meaning of this?”

White light leaked out of the small building of Okutama Station.

The white-walled building resembled a mountain cottage and Sayama crossed his arms in front of it.

He spoke to what lay beyond his gaze and beyond the shadows formed by the light extending from the open building.

“Doctor Chao, why are you waiting for me here?”

He looked at Chao and his eyes narrowed in on the slender face of that girl-like woman.

Chao then spoke with her mouth twisting into what might have been a smile.

“Well, there’s a lot I’d like to say. But are you sure this is a good idea? Are you really heading into the mountains unarmed when someone could attack?”

“Okutama is my home ground, I am familiar with the land, and I have not forgotten…”

He thought while he spoke. Due to Team Leviathan temporary disbanding, he had not brought any UCAT products with him. Besides what he had borrowed from the Tamiya family, he had brought a few other necessities. For example, the handheld digital recorder with an edited compilation of Shinjou’s voice, his Shinjou album, a full set of Shinjou goods, and…

…With my imagination, I have more than enough!

He nodded and spoke to Chao with a relieved look.

“I have not forgotten anything.”

“I’m not sure what that was about, but I’m glad to hear it.”

She glared at him and he tilted his head.

“But,” he began. “Why have you shown up just before my delightful mountain-climbing trip? Do you have something to say concerning the current cultural exchange between my former teammates and the four old brothers?”

“Oh? You’re pretty sharp.”

Chao had a smile in her tone, pulled a cigarette from her white coat’s pocket, and placed the paper cylinder between her lips.

“Well, it wouldn’t have been too hard to figure out if you gave it some thought. Four brothers of unknown origin were working underneath me, the person in charge of 7th-Gear.”

She raised her head which indeed held a smile. It was a pale smile with the eyebrows slightly lowered.

“I’m guessing the reason no one else figured it out was that they couldn’t bring themselves to believe it. But you seem to be different, grandson of Sayama. You will take us on, won’t you? Let’s see, right now you’re…”

“Team Leviathan has been freely disbanded.”

“So should I call you the main force of Japanese UCAT?”

With that, she removed the cigarette and exhaled smoke.

The smoke spread through the air, but she opened a hole by breathing out her next breath and the two of them faced each other through it.

“You actually saved us by catching up before those four reached their limit. And that’s why you need to be tested to see if Low-Gear is worthy of receiving 7th-Gear’s Concept Core.”

“Can you not accomplish that via the Leviathan Road?”

“This is the Leviathan Road, grandson of Sayama. This is the same negotiation you have brought to the other Gears. The only difference is that 7th-Gear is taking it to you this time. Yes, just like before.”

“Just like before?”

Chao smiled bitterly at Sayama’s question.

“That’s right. On September 29 of 1945, people from 7th-Gear invaded the Izumo Company, but they left without killing anyone or destroying anything. Do you know why?”

“A simple question: because they were curious.”

What a boring question, thought Sayama as he answered and stepped forward.

After approaching through the darkness by one step, he adjusted the bag on his back.

“Doctor Chao, you have altered your body to extend your life, but when was that done? Based on your apparent age, was it done during the Concept War so you could battle 7th-Gear? And it was most likely done using the 7th-Gear techniques you had acquired at that point. Am I wrong?”

Even as he asked, he continued speaking.

“Based on the four brothers, I can guess 7th-Gear excelled at techniques to strengthen the human body. And as the Divine States-World Interaction Theory places it in China, I can also guess it was the world of the sage gods. They had mastered everything they could as people, so they attempted the final task they had left. In other words…”

An old man’s voice continued from Sayama’s right. It was Nijun’s voice.

“They gathered together the ultimate power they had gained through their various forms of training. They combined the individual sage gods’ powers and created the ultimate of the ultimate.”

“And that is the four of you?”

Nijun, the old man in a white coat, appeared from the darkness, but he did not nod.

Instead, Chao blew out some smoke.

“It was funny. When they invaded again, they completely cornered us, but they rejoiced when they saw the human modification facility I had built below Japanese UCAT.”

“They had found someone in this boring Gear who understood them. 7th-Gear viewed their human modification techniques as entertainment, so it must have been a shock to them. They realized the people of this ridiculous Gear could ‘enjoy themselves’ just as they could. Doctor Chao, that was why they invited you to 7th-Gear, wasn’t it? And as for you four brothers…”

Sayama turned to Nijun.

“The residents of 7th-Gear created the ultimate power by combining with their Concept Core. Are you that Core’s borrowed form after it was split in four?”

He took a step back from Nijun as he spoke. He turned to the side to prepare for a fight, but Nijun quietly shook his head.

“Sayama-sama, people will notice us here and I am the shyest of my brothers.”

“I see,” said Sayama while maintaining his defensive stance.

…What is the situation?

Chao was there and some of the other brothers might have been there too.

He told himself not to let his guard down while Chao waved her right hand back and forth.

“Don’t be in such a rush, grandson of Sayama. We’ve waited for sixty years. While modifying those four on the other side, I spent an even longer time in a space that seemed to distort time. …So we can wait a little longer. Oh, I know. How about until you’ve had time to look around in the mountains? We can do this once you come down.”

“In other words, you plan to interrupt me while I am happily descending the mountain with thoughts of Shinjou-kun in my head?”

Still ready for a fight, Sayama glared at the other two.

“I am willing to do it here. How about you?”

His question was answered by a movement from Chao.

She took a step to the side to move from his path away from the station and she shrugged.

“I stand on the side of 7th-Gear since they invited me as a guest. I’ve sent in my letter of resignation along with theirs. …But I won’t interfere. I’ll just watch on and make sure they can do this properly.”

With that, she put her hand in her white coat’s pockets.

“And since you’re going mountain-climbing, let me give you a piece of meaningless information. The only two who went to Professor Kinugasa’s home looking for documents on Georgius were your father and your mother.”

“My mother? Why?”

“That’s simple. She was helping your father. She was the one that actually found Professor Kinugasa’s documents. Do you know why they needed them?”

“Was it for a battle? Perhaps a large-scale one in Osaka?”

Sayama’s words received a whistle in response. Chao sent the noise into the sky.

“Nicely said. I can’t tell you anything else, so if you want to know more, go play with those four. …Listen. If you defeat them, they will give you the Concept Core and some information on the past. After all, those four brothers fought in that Osaka battle.”

“!?”

“Those related to the Leviathan Road are forbidden to reveal the past, but this is a special case since we brought the fight to you. That rule no longer applies. Even if it’s only a few fragments of information, you should come to understand quite a bit.”

As she spoke, Nijun swayed in the corner of Sayama’s vision.

The old man was about to vanish so he could wait in the battlefield he would share with Sayama.

“…!”

Sayama immediately began to move.

He took an instantaneous step that flowed into a right roundhouse kick.

It was a demonstration for the opponent and a feint meant to keep the man from escaping.

If the man was not planning to fight now, it meant he was not prepared.

That meant Sayama could not let him escape. The suddenness and the distance between them precluded a clean hit, but the feint of a kick was the first step to reach one.

“…!?”

However, Sayama both saw and realized that his own body would not move in the slightest.

…What?

Confusion filled his motionless body.

Even as a feint, he had poured all his strength into the kick, but his body remained in the defensive stance from before.

He could not move.

…What is this?

“That is Nijun’s concept. Sayama, he might just be the worst possible opponent for you.”

He heard Chao speak, but Nijun was nowhere to be seen.

As he wondered when the man had vanished, Chao’s voice filled the chilly night air around him.

“Let us enjoy this, grandson of Sayama. And I hope your teammates do the same. 7th-Gear desired a satisfying destruction after fulfilling their own enjoyment. Once they reached the climax of their happiness, they wished to welcome in the end and entrust themselves to the next generation.”

And…

“Can you accept 7th-Gear’s happiness? Can you lead those four brothers to destruction not through a harsh battle, but through enjoyment? Can you use these battles to give them a happiness that exceeds that of 7th-Gear which left everything to me and was destroyed?”

Her questions resounded and hung in the air, but finally silence washed over their surroundings along with a warm night wind.

Sayama heard dried leaves scattering across the small space in front of the station building.

His eyes looked to his own shadow on the asphalt and Chao beyond it.

“Quite a one-sided proposition. But either away, I have no objection to enjoying all things, but making it obligatory will cost you.”

He looked up to a place a bit lower than the heavens. The mountains of Okutama formed a darkness even deeper than the night.

After the span of a breath, he spoke while staring into that darkness.

“I just hope my former teammates can enjoy it.”

“Will they be okay? According to Hiba’s grandson, Kazami and the others aren’t accepting your temporary disbanding of Team Leviathan.”

“Even I am half in doubt about it.”

As he spoke, Sayama walked forward. His leather shoes produced steady footsteps and he arrived next to Chao.

“But I believe it is necessary. If you will delightfully and happily oppose us, then the reason I had Team Leviathan disband will become all the more obvious.”

Chao asked a question as he approached.

“Do you mean you are implicitly telling them to back off now because it is dangerous? Are you telling the members of Team Leviathan to leave the front lines because the battle is about to grow even more dangerous?”

Sayama gave his answer while walking past her.

He smiled ever so slightly.

“…”

And then he gave his parting words.

“Farewell, Doctor Chao.”

He passed by her and continued walking. He made his way into the Okutama mountains and to the path that would take him forward.

He did not bother turning back toward the late autumn wind.

Kazami could not move.

She was in a space where she could not know what to do.

Part of her said she had to do something and another part of her told her to give up because she could not do anything, so she was left unable to choose either option.

The word impatience filled her heart.

She could not comprehend anything in her field of vision and nothing that entered her ears held any meaning to her.

All she could understand was herself.

…But…

If she did not understand her opponent, she could not fight.

She saw someone else step out of one of the RVs blocking the road. It was a short-haired old man in a white coat, but she did not know who he was or even that he had left the RV.

A meaningless voice reached her.

“Brother Ikkou, how is my fixed concept working?”

“Mitsuaki, it is a little short on fun, but it is very effective. It is incredibly hard to use.”

“Then what will you do? This is plenty fun for me.”

“Well, to increase my fun, why not give Kazami-sama and Izumo-sama a single chance.”

“A single chance?”

Ikkou nodded at Mitsuaki’s question.

At that point, something appeared from the northern sky beyond the mountain.

They were two lines of light.

Each light had a weapon at the front: the white spear named G-Sp2 and the white sword named V-Sw.

Those weapons were very familiar to Kazami.

“…”

But she could not understand what was flying their way.

At the same time, her own senses brought a question to mind.

…Shouldn’t G-Sp2 and V-Sw be arriving about now?

How long had it been since she had shouted the name of that trustworthy weapon?

She raised her right hand and waited for a sensation in her palm.

She could not comprehend light or sound in this world, but she could faintly feel the sensation of the ground below her feet.

She was not feeling the repelling force of the ground itself. She was feeling the pressure as the skin on the bottom of her feet was pressed into her flesh by the ground.

Because she could only understand herself in this world, she could easily understand the sensations of her own body.

She would feel something in her palm because something had flown into her hand.

The moment after that was her chance to attack.

She remembered where her opponent had been the moment before entering the concept space. She had not moved a step, so there was not much to mislead her.

Once she had her weapon in hand, she could run across the unseen ground and attack the enemy’s estimated location.

That’s enough, she thought.

“!”

In that instant, what she wanted reached her hand.

“G-Sp2!”

Her reflexes immediately accomplished everything.

She felt G-Sp2’s handle slip into her hand. Its speed had not dropped, so G-Sp2 must not have been able to comprehend her either. She forced it to a stop by squeezing her right hand around it.

It was hers now.

The brief friction heat in her palm made it feel like she had grabbed fire, but she did not care. The sense of heat was reassuring in this sensationless space.

She forcibly spun G-Sp2 around to ensure it was there.

She pointed the tip forward as if thrusting it.

“…!!”

And she ran.

She ran across the visible yet unseen ground to reach the enemy she could see yet could not locate.

Her first step felt a little low, so she raised her hips on the second step. That second step felt tilted to the right, so she steadied her footing on the third step.

She ran.

She raised G-Sp2 in order to swing it toward where she estimated the enemy to be.

That location was a bit to her right.

There was one reason she had chosen the right.

…Kaku is on the left.

He had held her on the right when getting off the motorcycle, so he would be on the left.

She knew he would have called in V-Sw, but he lacked the same burst of speed she had. That meant she would be out ahead of him.

If she charged in on the right and drove the enemy to the left, she would be sending them right in Izumo’s attack.

She was certain he was thinking of the same cooperation.

…Yes.

She agreed in her heart, nodded with her body, and continued to soar onward.

She stepped forward to attack with the speed of her run and poured her entire body into jabbing the spear tip forward.

G-Sp2 would not know what was going on as she held it.

…Sorry. This must be scary.

I’ll explain later, once we leave this incomprehensible concept space.

So bear with it until then, she pleaded. Don’t worry. We’re strong.

Then the moment she had hoped for arrived.

She collided with something.

Starting with a pressure in her hand, the impact spread throughout her body.

A sensation like breaking through a wall spread from her hand to her arm, her arm to her shoulder, and her shoulder to her entire body. Soon, she shifted to press her entire bodyweight forward.

Something had stopped the spear tip.

It had been blocked.

By what? she wondered, while also thinking, We’ve won.

Their enemy wielded only an Azure Dragon Sword. With the skill to slice apart a motorcycle, he could likely stop her spear with just the sword tip, but it was still just an Azure Dragon Sword.

It could not defeat G-Sp2 which contained 10th-Gear’s Concept Core.

Kazami instantly operated the console.

“Change to your second form.”

When G-Sp2 had flown to her, the shield portion had already been attached below the tip, so the cannon form could be quickly completed. If she fired while their blades were locked, she could easily destroy the Azure Dragon Sword.

And meanwhile…

…Kaku will arrive and attack the defenseless opponent.

“Fire the-…”

“Are you sure, Kazami-sama?”

She heard a voice but did not understand its meaning.

She could feel the movements of G-Sp2 transforming in her hands and it would soon finish.

Afterwards, she only needed to hit the firing switch.

“Kazami-sama, are you having fun?”

The incomprehensible voice arrived again.

“Then allow me to provide even more fun. Mitsuaki, please release your fixed concept. I wish to show them my fixed concept and the concept weapon we stole from Izumo UCAT.”

A moment later, Kazami heard a voice.

—Strength is infinite.

Finally hearing a voice from the outside world surprised her.

Having gone for so long without hearing anything caused the concept text to sound all the louder.

And that was not all.

“Eh?”

The world around her changed.

Comprehension returned to the incomprehensible world.

Kazami saw the darkness around her and a small light.

The darkness was the night that filled the sky and the light was the white streetlight illuminating the area.

She stood on the asphalt and she held a long white spear.

The spear had transformed to its cannon form, but the pointed tip had been blocked by the Azure Dragon Sword.

The wind blew.

“…”

The cold air travelled up into the night from behind her. That wind that seemed to well up from the ground gave her a chill and she narrowed her eyes.

Only then did she grasp the situation.

“Why?”

A word wrapped in dazed confusion escaped her lips.

Ahead of her, Ikkou held an Azure Dragon Sword in his left hand. That was the sword that had stopped G-Sp2, but…

“Two of them!?”

The fact before her eyes answered her question.

Ikkou also held an Azure Dragon Sword in his right hand. The thick metal blade reflected the light and…

…It blocked V-Sw.

Izumo stood to her left. His eyebrows were slightly raised and he tried to press V-Sw against the Azure Dragon Sword.

However, Ikkou remained motionless. He was holding back their full strength with the weapons he held in a single arm.

As she wondered how, he tilted his head.

“Hm,” he muttered. “This is Rowless, the concept weapon I stole. Don’t worry. It is a weak weapon. It is made with simple steel, but it easily breaks. To make up for that, it can reproduce itself nearly infinitely.”

Izumo snorted at the old man’s explanation.

“For being such weak Azure Dragon Swords, they’re sure stopping our weapons easily enough, Ikkou-san.”

Kazami nearly nodded in agreement, but she realized she could not agree.

…He isn’t blocking us with the Azure Dragon Swords.

Ikkou had no strength gathered in his arms.

“Kazami-sama seems to have noticed. This is thanks to my fixed concept that activated just now.”

The concept text had said strength is infinite.

“Inside the concept space I control, all weapons have their strength set to infinite. These small blades and your weapons all have identically infinite attack power. And…”

And…

“If they have any power in reserve, it will be drawn out.”

Kazami heard two sounds.

They were high-pitched groans coming from the weapons in her and Izumo’s hands.

G-Sp2 and V-Sw almost seemed to be screaming.

“W-wait! What is it, G-Sp2!?”

“————”

The color green filled G-Sp2’s console and a single value appeared there.

“18%.”

The percentage increased along with the machine’s loud scream. It reached nineteen, twenty, and then jumped to the thirties too quickly to count.

“G-Sp2!?”

The weapon shook as if writhing in agony. The irregular shaking formed waves as if the individual shakes were synchronizing and the entire device seemed to jump up.

V-Sw was doing the same and Izumo was operating the console in a frantic attempt to restrain the sword’s vibrations.

But they would not stop. Both shaking weapons emitted voices loud enough to echo off the surrounding forest and they gathered wind around themselves.

They almost seemed to be entering their third forms on their own.

They were out of control.

To obey the will of the Concept Cores, the weapons drew out their power to the very limit. That power had constructed an entire world and the force that usually restrained them was releasing it with no attempt to stop it.

…Wait!

The console’s value jumped to the forty percent range.

A chill ran down Kazami’s spine. During the battle with 5th-Gear the month before, she had measured an output of 38%. That had only partially produced 10th-Gear’s concept dragon, but it had still covered around a dozen kilometers in the sky and devoured the 5th-Gear mechanical dragons like nothing.

She now saw an even higher number in her hands.

It had easily reached and exceeded the power she could draw out herself.

She shuddered.

“W-wait!”

The vibration in her hands had grown to the level of an impact.

A moment later, G-Sp2 and V-Sw both transformed.

They revealed their third forms.

“…!?”

But Kazami looked past G-Sp2 as it rose up in front of her.

Ikkou kept his two blades pressed against the rampaging G-Sp2 and V-Sw’s blades.

Firework-like sparks scattered from the points of contact and lit up the area.

Light began to leak from the gaps in G-Sp2 and V-Sw’s cowlings. They could not contain their own power inside.

…Not good!

She cried out in her heart at the same moment Ikkou spoke.

“Isn’t this fun, Kazami-sama, Izumo-sama?”

“Wh-what are you talking about!? If they go off here, you’ll be blown away too!”

“You are bearers of power. Don’t you find it fun to be able to use that power at its maximum?”

She did not understand what he meant.

Power was dangerous. Knowing that fact was one of the duties of those who fought.

…How can you enjoy it?

She instantly pulled G-Sp2 back. She wanted to remove the restraint of the Azure Dragon Sword and then think.

…I need to defeat this enemy before they explode!!

Her initial burst of speed would decide everything, so the moment after pulling G-Sp2 back, she thrust the tip toward the enemy’s gut.

It was a swift attack.

The light leaking from the tip and the gaps of the cowling trailed behind it like mist and formed a straight line.

The white light raced toward the enemy’s gut.

“I see you still do not understand.”

Ikkou swung down the Azure Dragon Sword in his left hand.

The steel sword collided with the spear that bore a Concept Core and attempted to pierce him with that light.

“Trying to attack with a weapon that is not yet even halfway to infinite? How boring.”

With those words, one of the weapons was destroyed.

That weapon was the large white spear.

The destruction greatly resembled shattering glass.

Kazami first saw a point about halfway up the spear tip swell out a bit.

A moment later, the white external cowling split and burst almost all the way to the handle. The inner frame was covered in squeezing cracks and it expanded before bursting as well. The thirty centimeter protective cylinder guarding the Concept Core was released the instant the impact hit and it prepared to be ejected outside.

“It hurts.”

That message appeared just before the console blacked out and the protective cylinder was contained by the part of the external cowling that had not been fully destroyed.

However, the destruction did not end there.

Kazami felt pain in her hands. The pain resembled grabbing a handful of thumbtacks.

The handle she held was also covered in cracks.

“Wha-…?”

When she turned around, she saw the third form’s foot pedal bend and then break and she saw the vertical tail wing shatter like a glass panel hit by a stone.

Finally, the entire white cowling burst like a firework.

G-Sp2 had been destroyed.

“!?”

Even as the fragments tore at her hands and skin, Kazami watched.

She saw G-Sp2 stop as if it had lost a battle of strength.

“You’re kidding…”

She blankly stared at the mass of metal remaining in her hands.

She waved it a little, but it simply felt heavy and lacked the life of a weapon.

She noticed that the protective cylinder inside the tip had left its proper spot.

10th-Gear’s Concept Core was held inside that.

With it removed, the console was silent and its owner could feel the weapon’s weight once more.

Would G-Sp2 return to normal if that cylinder was restored to its proper place? Would the weight vanish, would words appear on the console, would the damage disappear, and would it be able to fight again?

Kazami subconsciously reached for the protective cylinder.

Only once her hand touched the metal cylinder did she realize her hand was covered in blood.

She also realized it hurt.

“Ah.”

She finally remembered what she was trying to do and what the situation was.

When she looked up, she saw a raised Azure Dragon Sword.

Ikkou was swinging the left blade toward her.

“—————”

It’s over, she thought. I can’t avoid it. The weight left in my hands is too much.

More importantly, her legs suddenly refused to move.

Her experience told her where the sword would arrive: ten centimeters below her neck.

With the speed and thickness of the blade…no, while inside this concept space, the sword would slice her in two.

At least it won’t cut my face apart, she thought in her horribly calm yet somehow lacking state of mind.

She would be cut through.

But just before she was, three things rushed in front of her.

One was a large white sword.

Another was Izumo’s body.

And the last was his voice.

“Oh…”

That vowel sound extended on and on as his giant body moved between her and the blade.

V-Sw collided with the Azure Dragon Sword and loudly shattered.

Simply put, he had saved her.

But Ikkou did something else.

He had already swung the Azure Dragon Sword in his right hand.

“…”

The second sword silently came from the left like a cold wind.

The blade’s trajectory and length could reach both Izumo and Kazami who he was trying to protect.

It would slice through her below the chest and him above the waist.

No, she thought.

But not even she knew what that word in her heart meant. She could not say if she was stating that it was over for them or if she was protesting the situation.

She simply thought the word “no”.

And then Izumo took action.

He sent his weapon crashing into the Azure Dragon Sword. He used the most primitive weapon provided by the human body: the fist.

What happened when two infinite weapons collided?

Kazami saw the answer.

Both of them were destroyed.

The Azure Dragon Sword burst to pieces like a spray of water.

“Kaku!!”

Starting from Izumo’s left fist, cracks ran halfway up his forearm and the arm was smashed to pieces.

A dark spray was thrown into the night air.

Kazami heard a scream and guessed it was Izumo’s. The loud scream seemed to extend on and on.

But as she listened, she realized something.

The voice she heard did not belong to Izumo who collapsed before her eyes.

…That’s my scream.

“Ahh!”

Her cry resounded through the night sky.

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