Vol 2 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Santa Sangre

t felt like being in the sea of e through the transparent leaf, shi+ning down from the cloudless sky shrouded by only the tree branches Depending on the location, the color would change to blue, red or green, and strengthen the effect of eleic that shared its color

“──In green places like this, wind and thunder eleer”

They were in the square right before the entry point, the church, which was one of 10 worlds in 『CtG』 While looking up at the spreading sea of leaves above theht

──This is a world sphere with hout the land, “Wizards’ Glaive”

It was a world of ic-classified skills were banned However, it was filled with difficult quests and dungeons that could only be cleared by ic spells

The light passing through the layer of tree leaves gaveon the thickness of the leaves As a consequence, it hypnotically attracted visitors The world itself was literally a natural kaleidoscope of a fantasy world

Kasugai Yuu’s avatar was Claroup, which he was the leader of, had arrived to one of the town in Wizards’ Glaive, Raiankarydi

Cla swordsons’ Glaive, but instead of armor that favored physical defense, he was dressed with a cape He was a bit depressed after being compared to as “A Snufkin[1] but without the coolness” by Mifa

And while looking at Clamp’s whole body from head to toe,

“Ahahaha, Daddy turned green Like a poison slime”

Haruha let out cheerful peals of laughter

“But Haruha, it’s the same with you”

He looked down at his daughter as he pointed it out For her, she earing the sa it black through color edit, she now looked a lot like a sirl, was also lightly dyed green

“It’s true! We all green, we all great!”

While saying it like a slogan, Haruha rubbed together her ‘green’ hands For Haruha, as born froame, her avatar in this world was literally her ‘real’ body She was able to ai Haruha in real world

Froe bri through expanded『The Wicked (replica)』 marked on it

“Ehehe, they sell this area-liht it”

The one who bashfully said that was Mifa, who, all of sudden, had bought the hat in question out of impulse from a nearby stall

Mifa is Miharu’s avatar, but compared to Clamp and Haruha who behaved similarly to their own self in reality, Mifa behaved very differently, giving a very different impression

Her blonde hair blended in with the sunlight passing through the canopy as if she was like an idol on stage Further was nothing like the real Miharu At first, Yuu was puzzled by the gap between Mifa and Miharu

Today in particular, she edited her costume black to match Haruha’s own black and it made her look more mature…… somewhat

Haruha loosely opened her mouth and looked up at Mifa

“Mommy, you look like NP Witch”

NP Witches were co in the ga pointy hat which “really” fit their real life counterpart

“We’re match now”

-Mifa

“That’s right, you look cute, Haruha”

– Clamp

“Haruha look like a witch right?”

– Haruha

“This is a world sphere with hout the land, “Wizards’ Glaive”── The world of icians”

“We’re match now”

Mifa then put on the same hat and 《Equip》 it With this, the hat would never fall off on its own unless she received above a certain level of shock or deprivation effects

Haruha 《Equip》 the triangle hat as well and checked her own appearance through the statusin front of her ──In there, she’s not dyed green── Coairl loved to imitate her parents

Then Clamp who had just perused the ot pulled from below

“Daddy, Daddy, Haruha looks like a witch right?”

“That’s right, you look cute, Haruha”

‘Ehehe’ giggled Haruha as she produced a sood mood

“He said we cute, Mommy!”

“Eh? Ah……”

They unconsciously looked at each other── Cla

Yuu did think that Mifa in a witch outfit looked cute, but to say it that bluntly to the person face-to-face would have given off a very differentwhen said to Haruha

They had been able to co the tih their avatars over the internet But now both of the in the same place

The first to open their mouth was Mifa She covered her eyes with her hat and stammered,

“Tha, thank you……”

“No…… unn, well…”

……………………

“──W-Well then! What is the thing we’re trying to investigate here?”

“Aah They were often witnessed in the forest in this area──”

Knowing full well that she just blatantly tried to change to topic, Claladly followed suite In reality, their reason to be here wasn’t just to play around

“They’re 『Ghosts』 that aren’t recognized as either player or NPC”

◆Part 2◆

Over a week had passed since the day Miharu started to go to the same school as Yuu It was also the day Haruha e little by little That was, the nature of their uncommon daily life

While preparing for the upco his way home from school at least once a day Somehow he felt the need to be Kanna Sakura’s opponent, but it’s not that siain

Despite going to the same place and at the saot was just the feeling of guilt when he discovered the nah score list

Why did he search for her like this? It ht have been because, Sakura from that tia face; he wanted to say to that face of her

And co on Yuu’s behavior,

“I don’twith thatto do with that Kodzuchi-girl? ……The two of you look aard in front of each other”

The one who said that was Mifa

Miharu tend to refrain fro too much, but in 『CtG』and as Mifa, she showed no hesitation to say what she wanted to say To add on top of that, she didn’t even try to hide her hostility towards Fuyufu And yet, she was always interested about Yuu and Fuyufu’s development in their relationshi+p

(Kugimiya-san did say “I’ll support you”, but……)

Miharu herself had no intention in getting along with Fuyufu It also appeared that Fuyufu felt the same way In short, they had bad chelared at each other every time they met in the hallway or on the way to school Unfortunately, Yuu was in a delicate position where he couldn’t support either of them

His childhood friend who had always been by his side frohter’s mother” who either of them as enemy was not an option

That’s why── all he can do was to prevaricate the topic

“Like always But, that’s okay Being suspected by her…… is common practice”

“Mmnnn……”

Mifa appeared to show a lack of interest At first glance, she appeared to be acting normally in front of Yuu despite his relationshi+p with Fuyufu…… but, so

“More than that, are you going ith the class? From what I see, you seem to be liked a lot”

“…………Sonize me as a romance master…… Ah, I’ve restored your point up to 50”

He had absolutely no idea what shemore Miharu herself appeared to be occupied by her weird title

It seeirls in the class, but it looked like she still didn’t have a friend whom she could talk to casually

“Haruha is stronger than a raging whale!”

“This is the pulling overarm throw[2]!”

“Kyaaaa~~”

Meanwhile, Haruha was happily doing sumo practice with the NPC Nanny, Payakino Haruha happily screaiant mushroom stuffed doll It’s Haruha’s favorite activity recently (By the way, ever since Haji it in real world is now forbidden)

“Next time Haruha meets Sakura-chan, Haruha will show her Haruha’s sumo skill!”

“First of all, you need to solidify the basic and enhance your skill”

For the sake of her reunion with Sakura, Haruha was fired up She sure liked her a lot despite having only played for a few hours together Although, it’s still a mystery as to why she called her Sumo-san

Believing the person whom she only played with once as a friend── such childish innocent thought Her belief that she will ain reotten

(Since when have I become this tactless……?)

Right now, his only friend whom he could talk to comfortably was just Kouta It’s not like he wanted to become popular, but he felt that his current lifestyle forced him to avoid others

(No wonder Fuyufu got irritated)

Ever since he started taking care of Haruha, he was able to view things objectively by himself

And in the middle of such fresh and peaceful days, that man had appeared out of the blue

Niiro Mansei, a high-ranked researcher of “Human Equilibrium Institute” who used 『CtG』 to create Haruha and entrusted her to Kasugai household in the real world He’s a mysterious slilasses

“Well, actually regarding 『CtG』, we have a potentially problematic topic at hand”

While sitting straight and entwining his hands together, he brought out the ominous topic He ell aware that hehis last “favor”, so he ca

“……So what do you want by telling us this?”

“Well well, please listen to h”

Niiro remained calm, but his forcefulness wouldn’t take no as an answer He had easily crushed his escape option of saying “I don’t want to get involved so I won’t listen”

“For starters, the first proble reported by the players

In the vicinity of Raiankarydi in Wizards’ Glaive, we’re hunting an unknown group”

“Unknown……?”

“Yes Their appearance is that of a norh extended et anything ──Aah, by the way do you happen to knohat this is about?”

“Why do you ask me that?”

“Aren’t you the best person to ask about 『CtG』 bugs?”

“……I don’t intent to be one, and I don’t know any such bug”

“As expected, this is quite a problematic matter They are neither a player’s avatar nor an NPC, an existence uncontrollable by the system We have the duty to immediately clarify their identity and to find out what created theht?”

Of course If such unknown existence went raame’s controls, it will certainly har-in into『CtG』to sustain her life However, Yuu yelled in an irritated voice,

“Then…… why do you tell me all of this? You people should just──”

“Yes About that, I’ll explain to you after I talk about one

Well then, the second probleht up by the user’s family, not the user themselves I wonder how to say this…… it’s more abstract compared to the previous one

Their personality changed I 『CtG』”

“…………It’s not just their iination?”

“The changes are extrees all of the sudden And each one of theed differently, there are those who becoloost them, there was also a kid who had locked hi sociable

We’ve received over 10 reports of these cases, and considering the potential crisis we nore this”

“You are saying 『CtG』can modulate a person’s mental state?”

“Needless to say, nor any chees to the user’s brain or spinal cord, Ramiel is equipped with many layers of safety mechanisms

But still, Kasugai-kun You know there are exceptions for this”

“Memento Coppelia……”

A personality created in the virtual world like Haruha Memento was a prototype who failed in the real world and ended up with a corrupted ical impact to the player’s real body in the real world However, she was eventually defeated by Clamp

With her ability to bring divergence in an instant, she ed to kill Yuu once

“That’s right, an ability that Hadzar acquired on their oe call it the Absolute Unit Evolution[Man-Mod]

In Memento’s case, she activated the activity of the person’s thening ability and caused the reactions towards pain Just like hers, if it’s so phenomenon then there was a possibility it was able to bypass the safety lock

Therefore, there is a possibility of the existence of another tea a Man-Mod that we are not aware of”

──Finally

Finally he got to the heart of what it was about

“Are you planning to have Haruha face another Hadzar?”

Only a Hadzar could defeat other Hadzars as both possessed overwhel power in the virtual world Therefore, he had used Haruha to deal with Memento But

“The one who defeated Meht other Hadzars, from the start, you should have let me──”

The boy tried to place his hand on his chest, but the lasses stopped him

“Just calm down for a second It does not necessarily ht First of all, we’re still not sure whether it’s the work of a Hadzar or not, and it’s not like all Hadzar is like Meht be able to talk this out

For the tiate this matter”

“It doesn’t have to be us right……”

“──Sure, we can just leave the ht However, we have a promise to be not be directly involved in cases with a Hadzar’s involvement On other hand, people from the institute are forbidden to blindly interfere until we confirm the involvement of a Hadzar

Therefore, we request Kasugai-kun and others, who’s on the boundary line of general users, to investigate this case”

Niiro Mansei adjusted his sunglasses with his er and it casted off a faint ── very faint, close to non-existence ── smile for the very first time

“Do you understand?”

◇Part 3◇

──Like hell I know you bastard! He thought, but it’s the truth that he has no option but to accept his proposal if he wanted to consider Haruha’s safety And even if it’s not, it doesn’t change the fact that this is urgentHaruha should be a precious saht Me…… In the end, Yuu and Miharu had no option but to protect her by themselves

Later he talked about it with Miharu and she replied with “Just investigating right……” while reed

As he reh inside the forest where the “ghosts” were reported to be seen As he had expected, the landscape was stained by the green light passing through the seh the cotton-like soft undergrowth, he advanced to the center coordinates of the sightings

It was like a rass, but fortunately this is a ga lost since you can just simply open your map and check your current location there Even their footsteps are recorded

Throughout the Wizards’ Glaive, Yellow Brick which is a shi+ning yellow brick road spreads across the place Just by walking on that road, your Spirit Point[Skill Point], which you use to use skill and ic skill, recovery rate will increase, therefore this in this World Sphere where the usage of ic is essential, most adventurers chose to travel on this road[4]

However, the “Ghost” Niiro talked about see deep in the woods, far away froeness in the situation

In such a sinister forest,

““Payapayapayapaya Gyafun♪ Gyafun♪

Toady’s lunch is… what, hoi♪ (hai♪）””

There was the happy and carefree singing voices of Mifa and Haruha under the sky of the sea of tree

““After the rain, the o boom♪ (boom♪)”[5]

While holding Mifa’s hand, Haruha pushed her te Mifa Haruha loves to iot from Miharu when Miharu ran away fro along with her is her favorite With a strong infectious ss

By the way, the song that they sang was 『Ugo☆Ugo Fever』 It’s a funky soulful song written by Payakino byroutine

At first glance, they look like a pair ofa picnic But, set aside Haruha, Mifa was actually exercising her skill She used 》

《Curse Song》 is about singing to s ──It doesn’tsyste on your voice volues── as such, the desired effect achieved fro is divided into two types The one Mifa was currently using is the latter, to detect presences depending on the range of her voice──

“Nn!　……《Soundwave Search/Song》[Active Sonar] reacted to so!”

Mifa and Haruha’s carefree song abruptly stopped and changed into a tense voice

“This reaction…… large nu!”

Following the direction of Mifa’s line of sight, he saw a flash on the other side of the dense forest

Just like what Mifa said, the plaza-like woodland they arrived at was filled with lots of people However, the sight in front of theht

It was like a dispute between same or equal numbers of people ──around one, two, to three people──, if you look at it like that it looked like unilateral violations

Both sides have strange appearances Those on the winning side earingit hard to distinguish between the them was just the numbers drawn on their mask

Meanwhile those on the losing side each wore different individual mantles and a hood that covered their faces The only common point between them was just their covered faces

While thethemselves froic, they overwheluard

The hooded group tried to do the saap between their cooperation was far too huge The attacking big swordss were instantly cut off and rolled on the ground And the bloody letters Cut Off! Stained the green world

As he watched over the battle from a distance under the shade of a tree, Clamp leaked a puzzled voice

“……Bingo, it’s the 『Ghosts』 But, what is theof this?”

Once he changed his vision to AR e group with garbled name and simple statusThe problem is,

“The losing side is the one with corrupted display…… a bit unexpected”

As Mifa just said, the one getting defeated easily was the “Ghosts” No matter how you look at it, the suspicious ones were those people in masks, but at very least they’re just norh the display

To be honest, it felt a bit anticliht that he would have to face a group of Hadzar Thehoods have too many individual differences and none of them surpass the power of a normal human player

In that sense, the roup’s bizarrely rounded tactics[Manuver] ay more eerie

(……Are they just a sied NPC or a player with a broken display? If that is the case I would like to leave it to the administrator, but…… who the heck are those people in masks?)

It’s hard to decide At this rate, the hood group will likely be ine one will die si problem It won’t become a reason for Clamp and his family to intervene

As he felt Mifa’s gaze of agreement, he will decide their next move── But then

“Aa…”

The Sound of a s with Mifa, Claht

It was Haruha watching thein her eyes was one of the roup No, that hooded person was hit and bloay by theinto that person’s face

That face

That was the face of Kanna Sakura, the person Yuu had been looking for a while now

The ure had already disappeared from their protection

The masked man marked with the number 『４』 had a duty to carry

As the ic attacks, he was the rearguard and attacked with 《Electric Arrow》[Bolt Dash], a ic attack with excellent power and a fast cooldown that surpassed its cost performance Its only weakness was that it had a short and narrow attack range, but he couard swordsly fell onto the ground

Once again, the lightly-arirl was bloay and her hood fell It revealed the face of their enemy Naturally, it’s a familiar face, and the man delivered the final bloithout hesitation

They are “Ghosts”[6] An existence that must be erased

However

“Saaaakuuuuraaaa-chaaaaan~~!!!”

The targeted girl was pushed down by a little girl who juet and hit a tree behind them

『4』 wasn’t the only one as taken aback by the strange intrusion Everyone who participated in the fight stopped their movement A kid appeared all of a sudden in the midst of combat Not only was her presence out of place, but the fact that they didn’t notice her until she approached them confused them

“You, you’re… Haruha, from that time?”

From the way she called her name, it also appeared that the “Ghost” also knew about the kid Meanwhile the kid rubbed her cheek against the girl’s breasts as if she wanted to crawl into them[7]

“We finally meet! Haruha has mastered Sumo!”

She uttered nonsense, but one thing for sure, it’s okay to ignore what she just said No matter how you look at it, she’s just a child asn’t even 10 years yet, if that was the case, she should be a Travel PC who can’t interfere with combat

My attacks won’t be interfered with by her, so I can just ignore her and ht Naturally, the other ht the same

Thehis sword at the “Ghost” as occupied with the little girl There is no need for him to aim in this position

“Wait! That kid is──”

The sound of a voice was heard from afar This ti desperately pushi+ng through the grass They’re a swordsle hat as the earlier kid Looking through the AR Mode, their names and simple stats were displayed; they’re just common players

“I beg you, please back off for a moment! Don’t lay a hand on that kid!”

The witch-like girl was begging, but the words fro

“Do you all want to get killed!?”

『22』 ignored hiet

His wrists that were unprotected by his gloves started sporting blood Because of that, he lost his strength and his attack htly away from him and naturally 『22』 himself had no idea

If only they knew, they would have at the very least, put more effort into their defense

But in the end 『22』‘s body was ripped to shreds and he went down on his knee above a pool of blood that was flowing froot seriously injured in 『ＣｔＧ』 you will continue to recover like a va you still have Endurance PointHit Point left, but you will still lose your strength temporarily when you bleed from injuries on your vital points And then

His fallen head was hit with a roundhouse kick, as his head twisted in a strange direction 『22』 turned into a Corpse[Mannequin] in an instant Under Ramiel specification, no matter how ed and can no longer ame over

It just felt too unsatisfying, hollow, and shallow to call it a fight── like an unfortunate accident that is overwhelly common Like a pointless disaster

In other word, just an unreasonableness commonly referred to as fate

The one who accoirl who released herself froirl all of a sudden── the kid known as Haruha

She indifferently swung the knife stained with 『22』‘s blood and tainted the green ground with red droplets Seen through the shadow frolow of her pupils

Then, she turned her back to the confused the “ghosts”, and spoke to the masked men

“Hey”

It was said in a light voice, lacking of any kind of hostility or malice

“Why did you hurt Sakura-chan?”

『CtG』 is a ga wrong── to answer like that is common sense But, 『17』 as in front of Haruha did not answer Because it would be a lie That’s why, he gave an honest answer

“They are not human

They are not supposed to be he──”

He failed to finish, 『17』’s tongue was pierced with a blade deep into the base of his tongue and into his mouth, sen to his throat Haruha who threw that knife then cliht of stairs then produce a red light ball with her left hand and hurled it into 『17』’s open mouth

It was 《Exploding Fireball》[Fireball], ele Its power is not a big deal, but when it explodes in narrow spaces, it will create an ier

Before 『17』‘s back landed on the ground, he had already turned into a mannequin His head swelled up all over the place and its insides was blown to shreds, there was no trace left of its former shape

“Y…you, are you really that kid from that time……?”

After she expressionlessly defeated the second guy, Haruha faced the “ghost” girl who spoke in an idiotic voice, smiled