Volume 2 Chapter 4 (2/2)

”Sure. But with her 2 hands, she should be able to use a human level of violence. For example, ignoring all of Itou Helen's attacks, knocking her over, and throttling her should be plenty deadly.”

”Only the Leanan Sídhe and her target can influence each other. That means Itou Helen should be able to fight back with her own hands.”

”Her? Barehanded? You've gotta be kidding me.”

I was also an indoor type and I wasn't exactly confident in my physical strength. And yet she seemed so slender that even I could break her if I held her too tight. I had no actual data to back it up, but I was certain that Itou Helen would be overwhelmed even if it was against another girl. She would be strangled and unable to recover.

d.a.m.n.

If any modern weapons would be neutralized because they slipped right through her, then no matter how plain she looked, was this girl an even greater Archenemy than my vampire older sister or my zombie little sister? I couldn't see how to defeat her without any legends to rely on like a cross or holy water!!

”Kh.”

I heard a tense breath from my earpiece.

As School Festival Waitress Hanesaki Minori walked closer, Itou Helen was forced to fall back. She was quickly driven to the corner.

Instead of using my smartphone, I spoke directly to her small back which was about to hit the other side of the gla.s.s wall.

”Itou-san, how far can you go with the potions that place ferocious beasts into your body? If it's your hands or feet, you should be able to touch her. You need to arm yourself with beasts and fight back!”

”But…”

”Don't think about the risk of killing her! If you die, there's no chance of saving Hanesaki Minori. She'll just die somewhere else when the Five Battles Precipice catches up to her. If you don't want to abandon her to this cage, then you have to fight!!”

I knew I was saying some awful things.

If she could touch the Leanan Sídhe like normal, the fairy might be no st.u.r.dier than a human girl. If Itou Helen took in the traits of a bear or lion, there was a risk of accidentally tearing her to pieces.

But I said it anyway.

I had nothing to base it on, but I believed this route would take us closest to the ”best result”.

”Fight. You have to face her. If the only way to save her is to drive her to the very limit and place her in a state of apparent death, you can't hesitate to raise your fists! If you stay on the standard rails, then Hanesaki Minori has no way of escaping certain death. You are the only one that can lower her odds of death, even if it's only to 99% or 98%. So don't let go and face her like you mean it!! Please, pave the way toward saving her!!”

The pure girl responded to my unfair words.

She adjusted the potion bottles in her gla.s.s wand, moved her manicured fingertips at blinding speed, and changed the color of the liquid flowing through the clear tubes.

Even through the thick reinforced gla.s.s, I could clearly hear the small girl's bones and muscles straining from within.

There may not have been much of a difference when looking just at her outward appearance, but the internal structure was definitely changing.

There was only one change I could actually see.

They were not quite claws.

Something like long dark needles extended from each of the fingers on Itou Helen's right hand.

”What are those? Poison stingers?”

”Sure. An image comparison shows they are quite similar to a red-banded sand wasp. Of course, the thickness and length are far greater.”

A red-banded sand wasp.

Instead of gathering together to form an obvious ”hive”, I was fairly certain those were lone wolves. They targeted bugs in the ground, paralyzed the bugs with a p.r.i.c.k from their long stingers, and then fed those bugs to their own larvae.

Unlike a hornet, they were not feared as deadly.

But that was only because they were tiny insects. Once the stinger was enlarged to the size of a knife, it would be able to inject far more of its chemicals at once. That would probably be enough to paralyze an entire human and turn them into a specimen.

Just like with the jellyfish, she had chosen another venomous animal, but perhaps that was because a Circe witch was skilled with potions.

Regardless, this would allow her to fight.

It did not matter how slender she was. Her demonic right hand could stun her target with just a stroke…no, just a touch. And the Leanan Sídhe had set Itou Helen as her lover, so she would be able to touch her without any trouble. And that meant Hanesaki Minori would be helpless!

Or so I thought.

But shortly thereafter, I heard two light popping sounds.

The witch's right hand had been knocked outwards.

Even as I watched from the side, I hadn't been able to fully follow what happened.

Itou Helen herself had to be even more confused on the receiving end.

The Leanan Sídhe had pulled something from the short skirt of her school festival waitress uniform. They were two…sticks?

Were those retractable police batons!?

The docile-looking translucent girl continued to move.

The center of the small witch's chest and her lower stomach.

She accurately struck at least those 2 points. Itou Helen's small body was knocked from the floor and her back slammed into the clear wall right behind her.

”a.n.a.lysis of high resolution video footage complete. User, Hanesaki Minori's movements suggest she has learned some form of martial arts. However, it does not appear to be kendo. Since it includes grabbing and foot techniques, it is most likely based on Southeast Asian staff martial art or a derivation thereof.”

”How was this not in her data? Did we not know she was attending a gym or something!?”

”No. There is no history of her doing so. However…please wait. There are payment records of her second, Yuubari Setsuna, attending a kickboxing gym. If I expand the search to include foreigners who visit that gym, the variation grows to include a Southeast Asian cook and language teacher. One of them might be trained in using staffs.”

”…So we just weren't searching wide enough. d.a.m.n.”

The bunny girl had only given us the name of our opponent. The second had remained hidden. Their second, Yuubari Setsuna who had disguised herself as Kuroyama Hinoki, had learned this from a foreigner at the gym she visited and she had taught that to Hanesaki Minori.

And this was not something you could learn overnight. She could not have started training only after being abducted by the Bright Cross and knowing she had to fight us.

But.

”There were rumors that Hanesaki Minori had a lot of love affairs, but it's possible she was only really known for having a lot of people approach her. So if Yuubari Setsuna was teaching her this as a means of self-defense…”

This meant Hanesaki Minori did not need to let attacks pa.s.s through her.

She had powerful technique beyond the simple potential of her species.

And with her translucent body, it was hard to grasp her exact distance while moving around so quickly.

Then I finally remembered something.

To keep things somewhat fair in the battle between Itou Helen and Kuroyama Hinoki, the witch had been given those chemicals and the mermaid had been given a bunch of water.

Then what about this time?

I seriously doubted the Bright Cross would give us those potion bottles for free. After all, more damage would be done to both sides if the battle entered an extremely-close dead heat. The Five Battles Precipice existed precisely because there was no such thing as a flawless victory.

Then had Hanesaki Minori been hiding something equal to those potion bottles?

”Wait a second! Isn't this supposed to be a battle between Archenemies!? Can she really bring in a human weapon like a police baton!?”

”Hanyaaaan?”

The blue bunny girl tilted her head and spoke in a way that would've made me punch her if she wasn't a woman.

”Um, what do you think Itou Helen's gla.s.s wand is? Why would you think anything like fair play exists in a deadly battle between monsters?”

G.o.ddammit!

Itou Helen was a witch. She could not fight without tools. But if they used that as an excuse, could they let our opponent bring in a handgun or a bomb!? That was like adding on an extra option on top of their power as Archenemies!

”What's this!? Hanesaki Minori looked like a shy librarian, but was she actually a surprisingly active girl!? Is this the beginning of a counterattack by the capable girl!?”

Oh, no.

It did not matter how many wasp or scorpion stingers the witch could wield if School Festival Waitress Hanesaki Minori could strike with weapons that did not require her to directly touch her. She could swing the batons to crush the poison stingers. We could not hope she would pa.s.s out first while Itou Helen took damage.

I quickly directed a message to the girl's earpiece using my smartphone.

”Itou-san, you can't just increase your own power. You're going to have to throw some potions at her to wear down her stre-…!”

The words caught in my throat.

I felt a shock like a horse had kicked me in the heart.

”Cough, cough cough!!”

This was the Leanan Sídhe's penalty.

d.a.m.n, was even this too much? Throwing bags or bottles of potion was out of the question? And Yuubari Setsuna had said a lot of other things as well: filling the entire cage with gas as long as we had an antidote or putting a liquid potion into a tranquilizer gun.

And that sealed off those options.

We would have to get the witch's potion into Hanesaki Minori the Leanan Sídhe some other way. We did have a surefire technique, but it hurt that we had no other options. It was like being told to win 10 games of rock-paper-scissors in a row while only able to play scissors. It was theoretically possible, but it was nearly impossible in practice.

Meanwhile, the Leanan Sídhe approached Itou Helen whose back was pressed against the reinforced gla.s.s wall.

As soon as she got close, she began a fierce flurry of attacks with the twin clubs.

”Itou-san!!”

This was the perfect example of something being hard to watch.

She desperately avoided falling over and covered her face and gut with her hands, but that wasn't enough. A knee dug into her side, the intense pain and oxygen deprivation caused her hands to hover up, and the alloy clubs swung mercilessly toward her jaw and the center of her chest. It was like receiving concentrated fire from the 180 degrees in front of her so even rolling to either side to put some distance between them was difficult.

The blue bunny girl moved the thick mic to her hot lips and intentionally accelerated my impatience.

”Is it already over? Itou Helen is in dire trouble! Is she receiving divine punishment for greedily going for double prize money!?”

Shut up, shut up.

Whatever the case, we only had one option. The only question was when to play that card.

”Wait…Senpai…”

”Itou-san!”

”Something…isn't right.”

Of course something wasn't right. We hadn't expected our opponent to bring a weapon into the Colosseum and pummel her like this.

But.

That was not what Itou Helen was talking about.

”This person looks…on the verge of tears…!!”

”Ah.”

That meaningless syllable escaped my lips.

I had made a fundamental misunderstanding. I hadn't known how to look at the trick artwork.

And I received the answer while ignoring the weight of the penalty bearing down on my body.

A Leanan Sídhe was only visible to her lover.

And in exchange for providing that lover with talent and inspiration, she stole their life force and lifespan until she killed them.

In that case…

”Why…?”

My words finally regained meaning.

”Why can we see Hanesaki Minori?”

Her second, Yuubari Setsuna, made sense. They had trusted each other from the beginning.

I could understand Itou Helen inside the bug cage as well. As the target, she would have been intentionally given mistaken love.

But what about me?

And what about the blue bunny girl and the spectators? Was her love really that indiscriminate? Or was there more to it? I should have thought about it more. If Hanesaki Minori was really a Leanan Sídhe…

Then her lover was doomed to die.

And the odds were good that lover was Yuubari Setsuna, the second who was fighting alongside her despite the risk.

The only way to escape a Leanan Sídhe's curse was to give her another human lover.

The only way to save Yuubari Setsuna was to abandon her and move on to someone else.

That was the crux of the issue.

She had intentionally revealed her weakness in order to hide her true intention from Yuubari Setsuna. She had needed to camouflage it by saying she had a plan. Otherwise, Yuubari Setsuna never would have obeyed her instructions.

Meaning.

Hanesaki Minori had wanted to save Yuubari Setsuna from the Leanan Sídhe's curse.

And so she had placed her trust in the wicked outer world.

She had intentionally pa.s.sed her weakness to us, her opponents, and trusted that we would take care of it.

In that case…

I see. Did Hanesaki Minori want us to kill her?

With that, it all made sense.

There had been a hole in their interference. It hadn't been clear if the Leanan Sídhe's power would reach us through the second. They could have directly taken my parents hostage and had me give Itou Helen mistaken instructions during the match.

But she had concealed her true intention.

She had deceived Yuubari Setsuna to save Yuubari Setsuna.

…Was this a form of salvation gained through the Colosseum?

In her desire to protect someone she cared for, she did not lose hope in the face of this malicious world, faced it with courage, and then died as the kindest one of us all. That would save Yuubari Setsuna and allow us to overcome this awful night for a happy ending.

Was that really okay?

I couldn't let this terrible atmosphere get to me!!

”Itou-san.”

I breathed in and out.

There was a lot to deal with: the Leanan Sídhe's curse, the physical battle using the alloy clubs, and the decapitation kill confirmation made by the blue bunny girl.

But I still chose to challenge this horrific situation.

”…I want to save Hanesaki Minori. There's only one way to do that. I'll handle the timing. Will you work with me?”

”Yes. What exactly do I need to do?”

”Maxwell. Hanesaki Minori's combat techniques are only human ones and they shouldn't be using any Archenemy supernatural phenomena. That means they can be simulated using nothing more than the laws of physics. How well can you a.n.a.lyze her movement patterns?”

”Sure. Given 60 seconds, I can do so perfectly. But a full minute is a long time in the ring.”

”Itou-san, last just a minute longer however you can! Then we can see through her timing!”

The impressive blows continued.

Itou Helen's already slender body looked like it would break at any moment.

I knew this was hardly efficient.

And I knew this wasted injury would only sharpen the fangs of the demon of statistics, leading to the absolute jinx of the Five Battles Precipice. But…

We won't abandon you.

Hanesaki Minori, you're more ”human” than any of us, so we won't let anyone call you a monster.

I glanced over at the progress bar on the screen. Something was wrong with my heart, my head felt like it was going to burst, and I felt like I was going to drown in the air.

That was when I heard a horrific sound.

The fairy's club had dug into the witch's side. But something was different this time. Itou Helen was moving oddly, just like a toy doll that was slammed into the ground and had its gears knocked out of place!

”Oh, my! Was that a clean hit!? Did that take out the witch's ribs!?”

I clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would break.

But.

Even so.

”Task complete. I have successfully a.n.a.lyzed Hanesaki Minori's combat pattern based on the two clubs. User, please hold your smartphone up toward the fairy. Predictions of her future actions will be displayed using arrows.”

”Itou-san!! Now!!”

I just about screamed the instruction.

Hanesaki Minori's short skirt and ap.r.o.n fluttered as she horizontally swung her two clubs together like a bat, but the small blonde girl's cape fluttered behind her as she ducked down below the attack.

That created the first opening.

The fairy would be killed if she lost, so this may have been the moment she had most hoped for.

They were already right in front of each other and Itou Helen moved in even closer as if forcing herself between Hanesaki Minori's arms.

They were so close that the girl could not use the full force of her blows.

But martial arts were not where our strengths lay.

Itou Helen was a potion-using witch and she specialized in poison.

The fairy was most focused on the red-banded sand wasp stingers extending from the 5 fingers of the witch's right hand. Still holding the club, she grabbed the back of Itou Helen's hand and applied pressure. That was enough to prevent my undercla.s.sman from moving her wrist.

Hanesaki Minori did the same to the left hand, sealing off both hands.

But that did not matter. It was fine.

A moment later, Itou Helen moved in as if to headb.u.t.t Hanesaki Minori.

No, she was moving her lips in close.

”W-will that…actually work…?”

Before the match, Itou Helen had cowered down like a small animal in her black dress and asked me that question in the dressing room.

”Yes,” I had confirmed. ”If the Leanan Sídhe is too frightening, we only have to remake Hanesaki Minori onto a different Archenemy. And Itou-san, if you really are a Circe witch, you should be able to do that.”

The most notable trait of Circe was the magic potion that remade humans into animals by recreating the G.o.ds' divine punishment using human techniques.

And the girl who fell victim to Circe became the Scylla sea monster which had 3 dog heads and 12 legs and had killed 6 heroes who were recognized by the G.o.ds.

That meant it was not restricted to existing animals. Circe's transformations would include Archenemies.

”It's true this is essentially cheating,” I said. ”Humans and Archenemies are entirely different and cannot coexist. Archenemies must be managed to prevent the risk of human infection and they must be swiftly killed and disposed of otherwise. That is the foundational principle of the Bright Cross. But Circe's potion can fundamentally overturn that. For example…what if you could create a potion that remade an Archenemy into a human or animal?”

”Ah.”

”The Bright Cross would lose their excuse for oppressing Archenemies. And it would not eliminate the threat either. If they were permanently stuck as human, that would be one thing, but if they can freely switch back and forth with a potion, they're no different from a werewolf mixed into the crowd during the day. And since they truly are human while human, they can slip past any test. …That's why the Bright Cross sees you as a threat. They want to prevent the completion of Circe's potion so that doesn't happen.”

And.

If Hanesaki Minori lost her traits as an Archenemy, we would be able to take advantage of all the weaknesses that were currently off limits thanks to the Leanan Sídhe's penalty. With that freedom restored, there was no way we would lose. That was our plan.

Hanesaki Minori had turned out to be plenty strong on her own, but the problem remained the same.

Giving her the witch's potion and redesigning her body would solve everything. Not only would she lose her power as a Leanan Sídhe, but if she could not even move properly, she could no longer fight at all.

So it came down to that one attack.

If we could just get in that one attack!

Scattering a powder, rubbing an ointment on a blade, throwing a bottle of liquid, and firing a tranquilizer gun had all been sealed off.

So the problem was how to administer the potion.

And I had recalled that there was still an opening.

Yes, all of Yuubari Setsuna's ideas while disguised as Kuroyama Hinoki had used tools.

She had not touched on any ideas that used Itou Helen's body to administer the potion.

So.

”Gh…!?”

A girl groaned.

But it was not Hanesaki Minori in her school festival waitress uniform.

”Bhah!!”

It was Itou Helen. She stopped moving just before completing the kiss. I could tell Hanesaki Minori had twisted the other girl's wrists along with the clubs. The sudden pain had shocked Itou Helen and she spat out the prized potion.

Some got on the fairy's face, but the potion in our plan needed to be swallowed. Merely touching her skin would not do anything.

And then Hanesaki Minori's counterattack began.

Still holding Itou Helen's hands, her twin braids raged as she threw a fierce headb.u.t.t. My blonde undercla.s.sman staggered from the powerful blow to the head, but the small animal of a blonde girl had moved right up to her foe. The headb.u.t.t must not have felt like enough since Itou Helen was staying too close for the rush of physical blows to do real damage, so Hanesaki Minori buried her face in the neck visible through a gap in the cape.

No.

Was she biting her!?

”Khah!?”

The cry sounded like she was prying open her burned-shut throat.

And then the girl's body wobbled.

Yes.

Hanesaki Minori's body did.

Potions came in many forms.

They could also be administered in a number of ways: a tranquilizer gun, a powder a gas, etc.

But.

”The most definite method is to create a situation in which she will put it in her own mouth.”

”Let's inject the potion into your bloodstream. Then if you create a situation where she'll bite you, it should get into her body.”

The transformation began with the girl's entire body seeming to bubble up.

The mouth-to-mouth potion had not been the real one. That had been a trap meant to be stopped so she would get carried away. I mean, I wasn't about to waste a girl's lips in battle.

Hanesaki Minori the Fairy's silhouette collapsed. Her subdued and docile but attractive face fell apart. Incredibly violent dog faces jutted out and octopus or squid tentacles grew from her.

It was impossible to tell where the 2 clubs had gone. In fact, the slender hands holding them were nowhere to be seen.

She lost all traces of humanity.

She became a true monster.

As her body changed so drastically, Hanesaki Minori seemed unable to support herself. No, maybe she couldn't even breathe on her own. She became no more than a giant hunk of flesh and blood that continued to grow as it filled up the giant die-shaped bug cage.

This was Circe's potion.

That bizarre potion irreverently recreated the divine punishment of the G.o.ds using human techniques.

The entire arena fell silent.

For a brief moment, even that blasphemous blue bunny and the audience may not have known how to react.

And a few seconds later…

A dark cheer grew into a frightening rumble that shook the entire high-rise hotel.

”Dreadful! Such dreadful destructive power!! What did Itou Helen even do? At the very least, there's no explaining this using radiation or genetic alterations! Truly a monster! Truly an Archenemy!! This is what you call a one-hit win! This shocking scene is sure to change the outcome of so many 'worst way to die' arguments!!”

Itou Helen looked up at the grotesque mountain while the malicious mic performance and cheers washed over her. Her back looked so very small and about ready to break.

Someone even shouted ”murderer”.

It was Yuubari Setsuna who fell to her knees on the other side of the die-shaped bug cage

There was little I could do while observing this from a position of safety.

So I at least made sure not to let Itou Helen bear it alone.

I faced the blue bunny girl who was working up everyone's excitement with mic in hand atop the bug cage.

”As promised, we'll be taking the corpse.”

”Go right ahead! You surely have some, well, niche interests. But don't forget that we'll be confirming she really is dea-…”

That demon trailed off when she finally caught on.

Yes, Hanesaki Minori's current body was not human. She was a mountainous mishmash. Several giant dog heads stuck out and there was a veritable forest of octopus or squid tentacles. This was a monster one would never find in the natural world.

Meaning…

”If you want a head, choose whichever one you like and chop it off.”

Even the legendary Scylla had not died just from losing one of its dog heads. Those were no more than a decoration for that monster.

So would they search that mountain for the beautiful girl's face? But would that really kill her? The only one who knew was Itou Helen who had made the potion for this redesign. It was like having an important file encrypted by a third party.

So I would challenge the Bright Cross.

I would take on that awful international organization using this chance that Itou Helen had risked her life to give me!

”Once you've taken one of the heads, we'll be taking the rest. …You can't complain about that, can you?”

”Minori!”

The match was over.

The boy and girl returned to their dressing room while everyone glared at them. Then Yuubari Setsuna, the second, charged in after the ”corpse”.

The mountain of flesh and blood had already been stripped away, leaving only the original beautiful girl.

And more importantly, Hanesaki Minori was not translucent. She had lost the Leanan Sídhe trait that meant only her lover could see her.

”It's okay. It's okay now, Setsuna-chan…” said the former Leanan Sídhe who looked like she could hardly believe it herself as she pulled the thin sheet up to her chest. ”I haven't fully returned to being human yet, but they say they can redirect the Leanan Sídhe ability that kills her lover so it won't have any effect. So now I don't have to worry about killing someone I care for…”

Hearing that, Yuubari Setsuna finally realized the witch and fairy had been fighting on another dimension entirely. She had been the only one choosing to mercilessly kill in order to survive.

She quickly turned around.

But the witch and her second were no longer there. Only a cracked door.

The legends concerning fairies say that the victims taken away by fairies will lose their humanity and become a fairy themselves. But there is a way for those victims to regain their humanity.

If you see a familiar face in the fairy parade, immediately run up to them. And no matter what awful things the fairies do to you, never give up and continue to hold them in your arms.

If your courage and love are real and you do not give up to the very, very end, that person who became a fairy will be freed and return to their human life once more.

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