Liar, Liar - Volume 6 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Proof of Resolve

Day two of SFIA’s Dropout Tamers was finally about to end.

After Saeki’s Rapture, the Game pretty much ground to a halt. And of course it did—not only had a bunch of slots for the final stage been filled, but Saeki’s Limited Sharing had just locked up a bunch of familiars, including most of the ones people needed to clear the stage. What was there left to aim for, really? Even if we went through the steps the S-class quest required, the Archangel was in prison. And even if we fought other teams, it’s not like any of them had A-class familiars to take.

“This is bad…”

Even the normally chill Minami was frowning and kicking her legs around.

We were all seated in an outdoor café not far from where we’d fought Minakami. Except for Yuikawa, who’d wasted no time ditching us after winning the Rapture lottery, all the members of Team VI were at a round table, staring at each other. Minakami had wandered off not too long after that fight, and I was kind of worried about her, but Himeji was keeping tabs on her without me even having to ask.

As for Sana Nitta, the other victim of the Hexagram, she had been silent for a good while. She didn’t have to put on a brave front now, so she looked much paler, clearly frightened of Saeki. All her anger at the Hexagram was bubbling up to the surface.

“…Well, let’s recap our current situation.”

Keiya Fujishiro spoke up first after an extended period of silent contemplation. His fiendish eyes swiveled around, looking at all of us one by one before he kept mumbling.

“So with the Rapture the Hexagram pulled off, we have practically no way to win this Game. I wanna hear your takes on it.”

“Mm… I hate that guy. I’d take the stalker and delinquent here any day…”

“Yeah, thanks. But I’m not talkin’ about that. Are we screwed or not? That’s what I wanna know.”

“…? Well, that’s easy. Of course we’re not screwed.”

Minami’s short hair bounced a little as she tilted her head, her voice full of confidence.

“Yeah, I agree,” I said with a nod. “Saeki’s Ability is a real Game-breaker, but I don’t think it’s a lethal blow. I’m totally sure we have a chance at a comeback.”

“Oh? How come?”

“Two reasons. One, the Game’s still ongoing. If this was really beyond salvaging, the admins would’ve stopped it, right? Then they could just run the final stage with the nine people who made it in so far. And two…”

“…Koto Tsuzuki is still here.”

Minami, as emotionless as ever, gave the second reason before I could.

“That macho guy,” she said, staring at me with her blue eyes. “One of the top-rankers of the Hexagram… Him still being here is the strangest part of all… You know they’d want to have him for the final…”

“Yeah, exactly. It could be that he’s still here because he was his team’s traitor and has to collect Suzaku, but I don’t think that’d be reason enough to simply abandon him. He’s got some other role here.”

“A role, huh? …Well, the obvious thought is that it’s got somethin’ to do with Suzaku. They haven’t been able to find that A-class familiar, which means at least a few people are still stuck in here. I don’t think they would’ve left seven slots free otherwise.”

“Yeah. It’d make sense if Tsuzuki’s job is to obtain Suzaku and help the remaining Hexagram members still here reach the final stage. And if so…or even if that’s not true, really, Saeki’s ‘prison’ was set up from the start to be breakable, right? If it wasn’t, then Tsuzuki himself wouldn’t be able to make it into the final, and I really doubt that’s how they designed it.”

That seemed like a reasonable summary of our thoughts. Whether it was a perfect answer or not, that was likely the gist of it. The presence of Koto Tsuzuki, heavy hitter for the Hexagram, indicated to us that there was still a way to beat Dropout Tamers.

“But the question is…what kind of route’s left for us?”

I leaned forward a bit as I thought, then surreptitiously put a finger to my earpiece… If I wanted a breakthrough, I needed more details on Saeki’s Abilities, so I’d asked the Company for an analysis a little while ago.

The first to respond to my tapped signal was Shiina, who sounded pretty excited.

“Hiroto, Hiroto! Analysis complete! That guy’s Ability might be superstrong, I think. So, like, Limited Sharing is a way to define conditions that… Um, what was it again?”

“Right, right, just let Kagaya lay out the details.”

“…Hi, Hiro! How ya doing? Like Tsum-Tsum was about to say… You know how Saeki is a double Unique Star holder, right? So in addition to taking stars from lower-ranked players, he’s got another Unique capable of something big, okay? He mentioned it a little bit in that stream—the pink star, which has an Ability called Define Conditions.”

“…?”

“Basically, it’s a Unique Star that chains together conditions and results—like, if this happens, then do that. That’s what he used to construct Limited Share, which is a kind of cloud storage that’s locked down once the Rapture takes place. Pretty neat, huh? It’s not just a storehouse—his Ability can create all the conditions needed to transform it whenever he needs to. And that’s just one example of how you can use Define Conditions…”

Kagaya was sounding more businesslike than usual. It made sense, as shocking as the news was. No wonder this was all going his way—Saeki had had a Unique Star capable of that much all along. There was a certain limit to the Abilities that Define Conditions could bring about, but you couldn’t ask for much more freedom. The prison was full of familiars rated B and up, and it was all made with an Ability derived from that star.

So is there a way to break in…or to return the prison to its original “cloud storage” state?

My thoughts began to run deeper in response to this new information. But it was still a pretty tough problem. With the Hexagram’s eyes on us, attempting a movie-like break-in was far too dangerous… But then again, this whole line of thinking kicked off because we wondered if Tsuzuki wanted to advance to the final stage. The Hexagram claimed to be for justice, at least, so I doubted they’d adopt a strategy based on screwing people over that much.

“…”

I glanced at Nitta, sitting off to the side a bit in front of me.

Now that we had reached this point, I found myself thinking more and more about Sana Nitta—the first-year from the Twentieth Ward’s Azuminodai School. There was no doubting the fact that the Hexagram ordered her to join us. She’d received protection so she could keep winning up to Stage Three of SFIA, and there was no way she had been assigned to our DOT team by coincidence. What if Saeki had used Define Conditions to its full capacity and given her an Ability along the lines of “if the next Game is team-based, assign her to Hiroto Shinohara’s team”? Maybe that was the case.

But did they push her this far through the Game only so they could crush me…? No, there has to be something else. To borrow Saeki’s phrase, she has a “role”—one only she can carry out… Hang on.

The thought that occurred to me then seemed absurd. I couldn’t be 100 percent certain, and it’d normally seem beyond impossible…but if this scenario happened to be true, it explained everything.

“…Hey, Nitta?”

I twisted my body a little to face her, choosing to cut right to the chase.

“Listen, I want you to come clean, all right? Can you tell me what you’re hiding? The mission or whatever those guys gave you? Because it might be the key that gets us out of this.”

“…No way. There’s no way I’m helpful… And even if I could help you, why should I bother?”

“Why? Well, that’s a question you could ask yourself. I mean, they treated you like crap, didn’t they? Why don’t you ask us for some help? Why’re you keeping quiet and giving up? Because that’s not gonna change anything.”

“…! What would you even know?”

“A lot, actually. I know about your background, and I know how dangerous the Hexagram is, too. That’s why I’m asking you to get on board with us. Maybe you’ve given up in the face of the Hexagram’s overwhelming power, but do you really understand the person you’re looking at right now? I’m the best in the Academy. Don’t treat me like some wimp.”

“…!”

I was trying to sound as strong as possible, and Nitta leaned back a little in response. She thought about it for a bit, looking ready to burst into tears at any moment, then took out her device. Her choice of response was to project a screen with exactly what I asked for—a list of the Abilities she had installed, or was made to install, for this Game.

Along for the Ride: If you are disposed of as a traitor, the target player (Hiroto Shinohara) will lose a colored star and its associated effects.

Elusive Elation: If you are still in the Game and the target player has met the victory conditions for Stage Four, that person will be eliminated from SFIA instead of advancing to the final.

Compensation: If Stage Four ends and neither of the above conditions are met, you will lose one star. The effect is triggered even if you are a One Star.

“…Tch. Makes my damn skin crawl.”

“Yeah… It takes a lot for me to agree with a delinquent, but this is just awful…”

One look at the Abilities Nitta showed us was enough to make Fujishiro and Minami see red. Instead of saying anything else, Minami stood up, strolled around the table, and gave Nitta a big hug from behind.

I couldn’t blame her for reacting that way. These Abilities, likely created by Saeki’s Define Conditions, were custom-made to be as vicious as possible. If Nitta was eliminated from the Game, and even if she avoided that and advanced past this stage, I was doomed to lose a star. If she decided to abandon her role and flee—well, that route was explicitly blocked, too.

“…See? I told you,” Nitta said, gauging our reaction as she remained in Minami’s arms. “There’s no way I could help you. Whether you’re a Seven Star or the strongest in the Academy, you’re just no match for the Hexagram. You can’t do anything about this. So just—”

“I can’t?”

I grinned as I interrupted her. There was no doubting the pure malice behind the Abilities that Nitta was loaded up with. They were vile, yet still…

“Because it’s all exactly what I imagined and expected… So yeah, I think I can work something out.”

“““…Huh?”””

As I made that fearless declaration, the electronic bell rang to indicate the end of day two of Dropout Tamers.

“…Haah…”

My body felt heavy.

Today’s Game had ended before I knew it. I hadn’t even noticed. Ever since the Rapture, I’d lost all sense of time…and of everything else, too.

I leaned against the nearest store window to catch my breath, closing my eyes like I was ready to go to sleep… This was probably me trying to escape reality. Somewhere in my mind, I was still rejecting the message I’d received a few hours ago—the only guideline I had to work with right now.

“Trust everyone in Eimei…?”

…That’s right.

The message had come from the best sister in the world, the genius of Eimei, Mayu Minakami. I didn’t think any of my disgraceful behavior had been streamed live anywhere, but that message she sent me sounded like she’d seen everything I’d done.

This was my beloved sister talking to me. I felt like I should listen to her…but not enough to actually do it. I had already been betrayed twice, abandoned, so why was I trying to cling to someone so stubbornly? Even if this was Mayu’s advice, I couldn’t just nod and say yes to it. I was afraid of being abandoned again.

“But it was really me who betrayed the older students…”

The words slipped out of my mouth… That was it, the thought bouncing around the back of my head somewhere. Shinohara said that I was “allied with Eimei,” but I’d flatly denied it. I’d taken Kaoru’s words as truth, and—without any evidence—I’d accused Shinohara. I’d berated him. I’d pushed away the hand reaching out to me. There was no way I could face them again after that… I just wanted to cry. I could no longer cling to my own beliefs. I wanted to throw it all away…

“…Are you okay with staying like this?”

Just then, a voice I recognized broke me out of my selfish despair. A cool, clear, cute voice. It was Shirayuki Himeji, Shinohara’s personal maid.

“Because if you run away now, you’ll never able to come back. It means you’ll have to continue running for the rest of your life. I am not your maid, but I recommend you avoid that choice as much as possible… If you do decide to run, however, then please take care of yourself on the way home.”

Himeji bowed deeply, her expression calm and still. She didn’t look angry at all…so I decided to venture a question.

“Himeji… How can you stick with Shinohara all the time?”

“Why? Well…because I am Master’s maid.”

“I—I don’t mean it like that… I mean, he might be a liar, right? Anyone can be. Aren’t you afraid of that? Even if I’m having fun, and the person I’m with is smiling at me, there’s no guarantee it’s genuine. You never know when that smile will turn into a scowl… You never know when you’ll be betrayed.”

“…I see. This is the question you’re asking yourself?”

Himeji put her right hand, covered in a white glove, up to her lips. Shinohara had that same habit, too. They’ve probably been together long enough that one of them infected the other with it.

“I can say for sure,” she said, her beautiful, clear blue eyes still on me, “that my master would never betray his friends. But if you want a more direct answer for your present situation, Ms. Minakami… Well, the most important thing is what you want to do.”

“…Huh? Me…?”

“Yes. Ms. Minakami, you’ve been deceived by the Hexagram for an extended period of time. They’ve used you, toyed with you… Don’t you resent that? Don’t you want to fight back?”

“Fight back…? But…”

“Because I, personally, am quite angry about this. You may not like me very much, but to me, you’re a first-year I care very much about.”

“…!”

She gazed right at me as she said it. And maybe my own desires were getting mixed in, but she didn’t seem to be lying at all.

“I’ll ask you one more time, Ms. Minakami. Is running home to cry what you want to do? Running from reality? If that’s what you want, then that’s perfectly fine. But our Game isn’t over yet… So why don’t you fight with us?”

Her words seemed softer than before. And in response, I…

It was a little past six thirty by the time I made it back to the Eimei School.

Reading the faces of everyone in the student council room was a pretty easy task. Enomoto was looking even more displeased than usual as he tapped away at his keyboard, and Asamiya was biting her lip hard to suppress her emotions, but I could see how red her eyes were. Even Akizuki, who usually never stops smiling, was in a big huff.

“We’re all gonna help you, Hiroto,” she said, not a trace of sly sarcasm in her voice. “I promise!”

Minakami hadn’t shown up yet, by the way. Considering her current position and state of mind, I probably shouldn’t expect her to…but we would just have to trust in her and wait. Himeji was with her, at least, so she wasn’t in any physical danger. She just had a lot to work through mentally.

Then…

“…Yes, that is a reasonable way of thinking.”

Enomoto was the first to respond when I told them about the conversation I’d had with my team. He was sitting next to Asamiya, his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face.

“As long as Koto Tsuzuki is still in this, we have a chance to meet all the victory conditions. That much I’m certain of. But what do Sana Nitta’s Abilities have to do with that? Because it sounds like those Abilities are all squarely targeted at you, Shinohara…”

“Right? Like, she can make one of Shino’s Unique Stars disappear? That’s pretty nuts, isn’t it? I’ve never heard of an Ability that can just take ’em away like that before.”

“…Yeah, good point.”

I tried to sound upbeat in response to Asamiya’s quiet tone. It was beyond “pretty nuts,” actually. It’d mean all my lies would be exposed and I’d become a social pariah. But anyway…

“But that’s not the most important thing. Nitta’s Ability can make the effects of Unique Stars disappear. And Saeki’s Limited Sharing—and the current prison—are all powered by Uniques, too, right?”

“Yeah… Wait, you mean…?”

Akizuki’s eyes widened, like she’d just realized something. She leaned over toward me, her chestnut-colored pigtails swaying gently.

“Are you saying Tsuzuki is planning on somehow stealing Nitta’s Ability to undo the prison? He’s gonna erase the effects of a Unique Star to turn it back into regular cloud storage?”

“Exactly. And we can probably guess how he can steal Ability effects, too: Using an intrinsic skill that takes the resources, earnings, and everything else from a defeated battle opponent for a limited time. We saw it in action today.”

“…Suzaku!”

“Right,” I said with a smile.

I was talking about Requisition, the intrinsic skill of the A-class familiar Suzaku. It was meant to help players steal useful things from their opponents, but there’s nothing preventing you from stealing harmful things, too. For example, maybe it could steal the effect of “removing Unique Star effects” that Nitta had pointed in my direction, then apply that to a Limited Sharing key to unlock the prison… The logic was a little convoluted, but the general flow made sense.

“So in short, the Hexagram’s plan is twofold. If Nitta defeats me, then great—but even if she doesn’t, they can use Limited Sharing and the Rapture to pack the slots for the final with Hexagram members. That said, they couldn’t obtain Suzaku, so it didn’t go entirely according to plan. So instead, Saeki decided to use Suzaku and Nitta as a ‘Plan C.’ First, he’d turn his virtual storehouse—that didn’t contain Suzaku—into a locked prison. While it’s shut down, Tsuzuki would obtain Suzaku, and once everything was ready to bring about the full Rapture, he’d use Nitta again to unlock the prison. Whether Nitta’s Ability set eliminates the Limited Sharing entirely or just the prison aspect of it, I’m honestly not sure, but if Saeki’s pursuing this strategy, I bet he’ll want to do away with the storehouse entirely.”

“I—I see… Boy, Shino, you’re really smart, huh? Like, would anyone else be able to read that far into it?”

“I could.”

“Shut up, Shinji. That’s because you’re abnormal,” Asamiya snapped at Enomoto, her golden hair whipping around behind her.

“Um… So anyway, as long as we can secure Suzaku instead, we can break the prison, right? But if we do that…we’re gonna have to fight Tsuzuki at some point.”

“Yeah, there’s no avoiding that.”

I nodded in response to Asamiya’s muttering. If you consider the reason why Koto Tsuzuki, the Five Star third-year student and Hexagram executive, is still here in Dropout Tamers, we were all but doomed to encounter him on the way to finding Suzaku. That was a fate we couldn’t even try to avoid—either we defeat Tsuzuki, or we have no way to win.

“We’ve already identified Tsuzuki’s battle Ability,” Enomoto suddenly said, operating his device. “It’s called Hollow Creator, and it lets him create a fake familiar with the stats of his choice. These familiars don’t count as fulfilling your victory conditions, but they’re more powerful than their real versions in battle. That means you’re probably going to face a powered-up version of the Archangel when you fight him.”

“The Archangel…? The strongest familiar? Akizuki, you fought her in a quest, right?”

“Yeah. She’s real strong. Her stats are high, but she’s got a ‘healing’ intrinsic skill that refills all her Life Points every turn. We managed to beat her, but that was just a quest. If Tsuzuki gets to execute a command alongside her attack, that’s gonna be pretty hard to top.”

“But not impossible, right? Hollow Creator is reasonably powerful, but the effect only lasts about an hour at most. If we can hold out for that long, we’ve got a chance.”

“…Ah. I see what you mean.”

Now that I’d heard Enomoto explain that, I really felt like we could do it. There was a way; we just had to figure it out.

“But…it’ll take more than just Suzaku to get things to play out like I described. We also need a key to Limited Sharing. It’s that key that we have to apply Nitta’s Ability to if we wanna cancel out the prison.”

“…? But aren’t the keys all carried by Hexagram members?”

“That’s correct. And just two of them are still in DOT and belong to people who know us… Koto Tsuzuki and Mari Minakami.”

“…Oh. Right, yeah.”

Akizuki nodded, understanding what I was getting at it. Minakami’s key was only temporarily shut down—Saeki probably didn’t have any way to destroy it remotely—and it likely worked again by now. We definitely needed her help if we wanted that key. In other words, we’d need her back.

But if she doesn’t show up here today, I guess that’s the end of it…

I looked toward the entrance to the student council room. There was no sign of anyone coming in. If Mizukami was still depressed and rejecting everyone who approaches her, she wasn’t likely to snap out of it overnight. In fact, the longer it went on, the harder it would be for her to open that door and come inside. Asking her to trust us right now would take a lot of courage.

But she was the only one who could turn the tables for us.

“Mm… Well, back to what we were just saying. We have to beat Tsuzuki either way, so I want to figure out a method to defeat Hollow Creator and the Archangel…”

I was shaking my head gently, but just as those words left my mouth—

“…Excuse me!”

The door made a click, and it was flung open, revealing an out-of-breath girl who ran in. Her long, flowing black hair framed her grave expression. Everything else about her looked normal, but she must have unbuttoned her uniform a bit in the summer heat, because her collarbone was glistening with sweat and her cheeks were flushed. It was more than a little alluring, frankly, but I wasn’t about to bring that up now.

Seeing the approving glances from Enomoto and the others, I stood up on behalf of our group and quietly walked over to her.

“Well, Minakami…are you prepared to join us?”

From now on, it was Eimei against the Hexagram. Siding with us would mean turning her back to the justice Minakami had believed in for so long. It would mean entrusting her fate to us—a couple of random seniors from her high school. I was asking her, as harsh as it was, if she really had the resolve to commit to this.

“…Yes, of course. I’m scared that I’ll be double-crossed, but I realized that I can’t just run away forever. Or I guess…I’ve been taught that.”

But Minakami wasn’t wavering anymore. She didn’t evade my question. Instead she nodded firmly at me, and her face tensed up a bit. It almost looked like she was about to cry, but I’m sure it was just her attempt at a friendly smile. Maybe it was a clumsy attempt at one from a villain, but either way, Minakami the freshman held the most important “key” to Eimei’s comeback victory.

“Please, Shinohara. I… I want to fight alongside you all!”

Her tone was clear and determined.

It was the third day of SFIA’s semifinal stage, and thanks to our thorough discussion and advance arrangements, we once again avoided losing anyone in the elimination vote. Team VI’s full roster was gathered in a corner of Ward Zero at the start of the day.

Our strategy meeting in the student council room last night hinged on one important question: How are we gonna find Suzaku in the first place? If there was any info on a relevant quest or the like, it was completely hidden from the public. Even Kagaya couldn’t figure out anything.

So I slipped out of the room and used my device to ask a certain well-placed source (i.e., Saionji).

“The quest where you get Suzaku? Of course, I know it. It’s kind of a unique one, because normally you can’t find it unless you either have the Archangel, or you’ve possessed Suzaku at some point in the past. You won’t find it shuffled around with the other quests at all.

“Lemme send you its location real quick… What? No, it’s nothing like that. I have my slot for the final round, so now it’s your turn to join us, isn’t it? If you drop out, it’ll cause lots of trouble for me, too.

“…How can you repay me? Well…do you think you can you find a way to sneak me into your strategy meetings?”

…So with Saionji’s almost too-eager help, we had Suzaku’s location. But if we took on this quest that had been hidden up to now, I was sure Koto Tsuzuki and other influential players would try to get in our way. It was bound to be an uphill fight… So we took our time to come up with a set of potential strategies.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Team VI. Are you taking on the Suzaku quest?”

It was less than an hour into day three of Dropout Tamers by the time we reached the quest guide Saionji had told us about. This one was named Delta, and she was down on one knee bowing to us in the most superficially polite way possible. We nodded in response to her question, and she went straight into her spiel.

“Very well, then. I will now explain the quest to obtain the A-class familiar Suzaku. The nature of it is quite simple—all you have to do is show Suzaku that you are of suitable peerage.”

“…Huh? What d’you mean? Tell us how exactly.”

“At once. Suzaku is a legendary bird of divinity, and the ‘peerage’ it seeks among its companions involves dominating force. For example, if you are enough of a legend to have the Archangel in your possession, I will gladly give you Suzaku right this minute. If you are not, however, then you must at least defeat me, its trainer, before I can feel safe entrusting Suzaku to you.”

“Oh…? So as long as we beat you, that’s all that matters?”

“In the simplest of terms, yes.”

Delta nodded. I hadn’t asked Saionji about the details of the quest, seeing as she’d been hoarding Suzaku since the start of the Game, but apparently, this was a combat-type one. Just beat the quest guide, and you’d earn that A-class familiar.

If it was as simple as that, it’d be child’s play, but…

“A visitor?”

Delta had her head bowed, but now she looked up. I turned around to find three players I knew.

“Zooooooom… Skreeech! I’ve arrived in style! I was stopped in my tracks yesterday, but today I’m gonna win this match, Shinohara! Now I’m winking at you, my snaggled canine tooth gleaming in the light!”

The first was Misaki Yumeno, the first-year from the Seventeenth Ward’s Amanezaka School. I was wondering why she had both eyes tightly closed, but I guess that was her attempt at a wink.

Slowly approaching from behind Yumeno was Koto Tsuzuki, the now well-known Hexagram officer. He was a muscular Five Star, and we now knew his mission was to obtain Suzaku and ferry all his cronies over to the final stage.

“Nice work, Hiroto Shinohara. Kaoru was right… He said if we followed you, you’d lead us right to Suzaku. So thanks for that… But it belongs to the Hexagram now. Just hand it over to me peacefully.”

Tsuzuki sounded pretty calm for now. I had never heard him speak at length before, but his voice was as deep and rumbling as his appearance suggested. I didn’t sense any hostility or ill will, but I couldn’t deny the feeling that he was looking down on me. The third member, standing beside him with her lips tightly pursed, was Mari Minakami. She just stared at the ground, not even looking at us.

Their other two teammates didn’t seem to be here. I’d heard that Team IX pretty much fell apart after the Rapture yesterday, which only made sense. After that whole thing, most people would want to steer pretty clear of Hexagram members like Tsuzuki and Minakami.

Well, here they are…

I shook my head in disbelief at how they’d just happened to show up right now. Everything was going as predicted so far, for the most part. I couldn’t speak for Yumeno, but Tsuzuki had to be watching our movements to some extent. If he didn’t butt in now, he’d lose his biggest chance yet.

After thinking that far, I took my eyes off Minakami and called out to the two others.

“Hey! You both stalking me or what? Because if you’re trying to loot my prize, that’s pretty rotten of you.”

“What are you talking about? Suzaku is just a nice little bonus. A coincidence, really! The lone final boss I’ve had to beat since ancient times is you, Shinohara!”

“…It’s not a ‘nice little bonus’ to me, but I don’t believe stealing is morally wrong in this Game. How about you, Shinohara?”

“Nah, of course not, but…” I turned back toward Delta, the quest guide. “How should we handle the quest now? Does my team get to go first, or do we all go at the same time? Or if the idea here’s to show off our strength, I could prove it by beating these guys.”

“…Ah. A good idea.” Delta gravely nodded at my proposal. “In that case, Shinohara’s Team VI will engage Tsuzuki’s Team XI and Yumeno’s Team X at the same time. If your team beats them both, I will consider you worthy of Suzaku. However, if Tsuzuki and Yumeno defeat Team VI, I will entrust Suzaku to them instead.”

“Cool. That keeps things easy. But if we’re all fighting at once, we’ll need two main players. I’ll take on Tsuzuki, and as for Yumeno…”

“…?! W-wait a second, Shinohara! Why are you ignoring me, the protagonist, in favor of everybody else? Don’t neglect me! I’m about to cry, you know!”

Yumeno—who’d been paying more attention to this conversation than I’d thought—came up to me. But just as I was about to respond, Fujishiro stepped forward, raising his arm between us.

“Tch… You’ve been yelping for far too long, you wimp.”

“Gah! Wimp! You called me a wimp! I—I won’t stand for this, you blond freak! All you are is a warm-up for the final boss!”

“So what, huh? If I’m the second-to-last boss, you’re just a villager picking herbs in the first town. Shinohara won’t need to bother—I could bury you without breakin’ a sweat.”

“Arrrrrrrrgh! Now I’m angry! Really angry! Let’s fight!”

Fujishiro’s well-honed trash talk instantly attracted Yumeno’s aggression. He gave me a “This what you wanted?” kind of look, and I replied with a thankful nod. And so the undercard was decided. Yumeno was a dark horse gathering a lot of buzz online, but Fujishiro was Ohga’s Ace Behind the Curtain and their Final Weapon. I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified to watch my back.

“Phew…”

My shoes clicking against the ground, I turned away from Fujishiro and back toward Tsuzuki. This was the big moment—the one that’d decide how Dropout Tamers turned out. If we won, we’d have all the pieces we needed to turn this around… And if not, well, that didn’t really matter. I was just about done with suppressing my emotions at this point.

So…

“Bring it on, Hexagram. Your way of doing things has been pissing me off for a while now. Hope you don’t mind if I take out my stress on you a little…”

I smiled as menacingly as I could, my eyes narrowed.

We’d found ourselves in a double battle against Yumeno Misaki and Koto Tsuzuki over the A-class familiar quest.

I squared up with Tsuzuki, keeping an eye on Fujishiro and Yumeno off to the side. We were fighting at the same time, but there was nothing too strenuous about it. Fujishiro was the main player in our fight against Yumeno, and I was up against Tsuzuki, so all we had to do was select familiars and commands like usual. Fujishiro had already outlined which commands he wanted me to select for him, so I was free to concentrate fully on Tsuzuki, my own opponent.

Things kicked off with selecting a familiar. Here, I went with my old, reliable C-class Fairy. Speed was her specialty, and she’d completely shut down Minakami’s Byakko yesterday. All her other stats were crap, but still, she struck me as the ideal familiar for my strategy.

So what about Tsuzuki?

“…Activate Ability: Hollow Creator.”

The words rumbled out from his large frame, and in an instant, a dark, malevolent-looking whirlpool appeared behind him. It was a familiar, I think, but all of its displayed stats were question marks, which only added to the mystery. It didn’t stay that way for long, though. The stats slowly came into focus—first the LP, then the ATK—the vortex changing shape with each one.

“Now…lend me your power, Archangel.”

“…!!”

The moment he said it, the shapeshifting vortex suddenly began to emit a divine light. Once all the stats were visible, Hollow Creator sprang into action, re-creating the familiar those stats belonged to—the Archangel, with her beautiful wings. The holy messenger of the heavens smiled as she prayed, hands clasped, above Tsuzuki’s head.

Immediately after, both of our stat sets were on display.

Team VI: Hiroto Shinohara Familiar Used: Fairy (C)

Familiar Stats: ATK 1, DEF 1, SPD 15, LP 1

Team IX: Koto Tsuzuki Familiar Used: Divine Messenger, Archangel (S)

Familiar Stats: ATK 15, DEF 18, SPD 12, LP 25

…What kinda monster is this?!

I heard about this from Akizuki, but seeing the stat difference for myself made one of my cheeks twitch… I was completely outmatched. SPD was my only advantage, and even then, it was pretty close. That was the difference between the S and C classes, I suppose.

“…Good luck on your trip to the underworld…”

Minami, as usual, was saying some pretty inauspicious things in her monotone. I think everyone watching the live feed thought the same thing.

Still, we knew at yesterday’s strategy meeting that Tsuzuki would bust out the Archangel. So after taking a glance at Minakami (still bent over, looking at the ground behind Tsuzuki), I gave a slight smile and made a suggestion.

“Hey, Tsuzuki. This is a pretty big match, so why don’t we adopt some special rules for it?”

“Special rules…? Like what, exactly?”

“Like rules to speed things up. In a normal fight, when both teams exhaust the commands they picked at the start, only then can you add in some more, right? So if one team’s got fewer people than their opponent, all they can do is have their familiar do a basic attack until the other side runs out of commands. Instead of that, how about we have it so if one side runs out of commands, they get to add more to the list right at that point? You have fewer people, so I think that’ll do nothing but help you.”

“…? It doesn’t sound like you benefit from that at all.”

“Don’t be so sure. I’ll just go ahead and admit it; I’m trying to wear down your Archangel over time and make Hollow Creator time out. And if you think about it, the more time you’re wasting selecting commands, the better it is for me, right? I think the pluses and minuses are pretty clear, but how about you? Battles don’t usually drag on for twenty, thirty minutes anyway, so… Not a bad deal, right?”

Tsuzuki fell silent after hearing my proposal to the end. He was probably weighing the two points I’d mentioned in his mind. Considering the strength of his Archangel and the state of our teams, the scales would probably tip slightly toward him accepting these rules… But Minakami said he was a very cautious person. That was how Koto Tsuzuki had become a top-ranking member of the Hexagram, after all.

Hence why he said:

“…Analyze it, Minakami. Everything about that rule, from start to finish.”

Instead of giving it the nod straightaway, he barked orders to Minakami behind him. Her shoulders jumped for a moment at the sound of Tsuzuki’s voice, but she replied with a quiet “okay” and looked down at her device. This was only natural, in a way—no matter how loyal she was to Eimei, Mari Minakami was generally incapable of lying. That was her personality, or her creed, really. It had nothing to do with being abandoned by the Hexagram or not being their ally. She had sworn to herself that she would never tell a lie, and of course, Tsuzuki knew that.

“…Confirmed. This won’t be a problem, Koto.”

As she spoke, she raised her face slightly, and Tsuzuki looked into her eyes, trying to work out if she was telling the truth. Finally, he gave a decisive nod.

“All right, then. I accept your offer, Hiroto Shinohara. Let the battle begin.”

“Hah! Okay. Bring it.”

I grinned at Tsuzuki’s grumbled declaration of war as I selected my first command. My choice was the base command Speed Up. Fragile Covenant boosted that to +2, but the Archangel’s SPD wasn’t exactly low, so I couldn’t expect my Fairy to dodge the next attack. Tsuzuki, on the other hand, was playing it cautiously, using the skill command Defensive Function as he attempted to deliver a killer blow.

“…Activate Ability: Inferior Copy.”

But just before that, the Ability I had been carefully preserving until now took effect—Inferior Copy, powered by my purple star. Since it could duplicate things, it gave me three copies of Speed Up, which produced the chain Speed-Speed-Speed. That generated Lightning Speed for me on the first turn, the same command I’d used against Minakami, which let me dodge my opponent’s attack and bypass their defenses to land a blow. Of course, the Fairy could only deliver 1 damage to the Archangel, but this was a good way to play it safe while boosting the SPD of my familiar.

“…”

A hint of irritation crossed Tsuzuki’s face.

From that point forward, my strategy could be described as “evasive dive-bombing.” I’d keep evading enemy attacks with the Inferior Copies I made of Lightning Speed, and when a sure-hit strike came flying my way, I’d compensate for it with Life Up. Thanks to the Company’s assistance, I could see all my opponent’s commands, too, which ensured I made no mistakes in my command choices.

“…!”

But that didn’t mean I had time to relax, because the longer the battle wore on, the larger Inferior Copy’s use limit loomed in my mind. My Fairy’s SPD was over 60 by this point, which gave her a pretty good chance of dodging attacks even without a chain-command boost… But in terms of LP, maybe she could hold out against one of the Archangel’s normal strikes. Even worse, the Archangel had an all-powerful intrinsic heal after every turn. I could chip off damage with Lightning Speed, but it wouldn’t build up.

This exchange of attacks continued for a few more turns before Tsuzuki, glaring at our battle, quietly spoke up.

“…Can’t you give up already, Shinohara? You can’t just dodge me forever. You said you’d do that until my Ability wore off, but it hasn’t even been fifteen minutes so far. Do you really think you can hold out that long?”

“Who knows? I won’t know unless I try, huh?”

“Well, I do, because Kaoru entrusted me with this role. I don’t think I’m that strong myself, but his strength is for real. If he declares you to be evil, you probably are evil, and if he says he’ll punish you, you can expect it to happen. So, Hiroto Shinohara…this is where your destiny ends.”

“Kaoru, Kaoru, Kaoru… How can you still call yourselves defenders of justice if you side with that piece of trash? Is this your idea of a joke?”

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but to me, Kaoru Saeki is justice itself. I have no doubts that the Hexagram is a just organization… But stop obviously trying to stall for time, Shinohara. That copy Ability of yours doesn’t have too many uses left, does it?”

“…”

I shrugged a bit, my face fearless as ever, as Tsuzuki struck at my greatest worry in that quiet voice of his. He was right—Inferior Copy wasn’t going to last much longer. My opponent was precise and deadly with his command choices, and they were wearing me down more than I expected.

Damn it… It should be coming soon, but…

I began to feel a little concerned as I picked Speed Up yet again. Based on the stat difference now, the Archangel had around a 20 percent chance of hitting—a pretty delicate line to toe. If I wanted to be sure my Fairy dodged it, I’d need to completely exhaust Inferior Copy sooner or later.

What do I do…? What do I do?!

But as I hesitated for a moment, the Archangel was ready to attack. I no longer had the time to intervene with any Abilities. If this hit, it would finish off my nearly dead Fairy for good…

“Special command: Reflect!”

But I heard a familiar voice, and just then, a giant wall appeared in front of my Fairy, letting her deflect the incoming attack. None of the damage got through, of course.

Tsuzuki’s brow creased a bit…and at the same time, a blond-haired girl ran up to my side and raised her device in the air.

“Sorry to keep you, Shino! I know I’m kinda late, but I got a lot of useful commands for you, so how about we join in, huh?”

The Golden Demon was ready to fight—and fight hard. It was Nanase Asamiya, the Eimei Six Star, who’d used the Reflect skill command to cut off Tsuzuki’s strike. She wasn’t acting alone, either—her teammates were also nearby, devices in their hands.

“Heh-heh… Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sorry, Hexagram, but it’s time to wave the flag of rebellion! And how dare you claim to be on the side of justice when you completely disregard my goddess?! Ridiculous!!”

Seiran Kugasaki was kicking ass as always, his cape (complete with epaulets) fluttering in the air.

Of course, butting into a fight like this was unheard of. A third party would normally never be allowed to join a battle in progress like this… But there was a clear reason why Asamiya was able to throw her own command into the fray.

“…No way,” Tsuzuki muttered, just realizing something as he looked down at his device. He was probably looking at the detailed explanation of the new rules I’d introduced for this fight. And his hunch was correct—what I called the “sped-up rules” had one more special clause, aside from the one I’d explained to him.

“A ‘new challenger’ rule…? Other teams may join this battle at any point as long as they announce themselves… And only the team that remains at the end will be the winner?!”

“Yeah, that’s right. Those are the rules I proposed, and you said yes to them, right?”

“…! Minakami! What’s going on here?!”

Tsuzuki turned around, his voice raised. He must’ve had a good picture in his mind about what just happened. Minakami had carefully examined the rule in question and declared that there was no problem, after all.

“I thought not lying was your credo…! Or do you think it’s okay to trick me now that you’re not in the Hexagram anymore? If so, you’ve become the very ‘evil’ you hate so much!”

“…? What a strange thing to say, Koto.”

Minakami sounded completely unabashed and completely composed. She quietly lifted her face and let her black hair flow down her back. The expression she hid wasn’t despair at all—but a dazzling smile.

“I said it ‘won’t be a problem.’ And that’s not a lie, is it? I don’t know about you, Koto, but for me—a student at the Eimei School—this isn’t a problem at all!”

“Wha…?!”

After seemingly refuting everything she stood for, Minakami ripped the Hexagram’s emblem off her chest, stuffed it into Tsuzuki’s breast pocket, and strolled over to us with the full extent of her dignity intact. It was all bravado, though, and by the time she reached us, she was looking ready to burst into tears. Then, in a voice too quiet for anyone but me to hear, she said:

“…I’m counting on you, Shinohara.”

“Sure, Minakami. Good work. I’ll take care of the rest.”

I gave her as gentle a pat as possible on the shoulder and stepped in front of her. It was now only Koto Tsuzuki and me.

A fearless smile slowly grew across my face.

“Hah! Now do you see? This battle isn’t a one-on-one between you and me at all. It’s a huge fight that anyone who’s left in Dropout Tamers can join in. And once my familiar’s Life Points run out, the rules are set up so it switches over to the next member, so I don’t think I’m gonna run out of firepower anytime soon!”

“…But… Why even start a battle like this, then?”

“Oh, there’s a good reason for that. You see, if we win here, we get Suzaku, right? That, and all the resources our opponents used in the fight. The more people involved, the greater the profits for my side. And in fact, I think just about everybody in this Game will wanna pitch in!”

“Ngh… Then I’ll finish it before the crowds arrive!”

Tsuzuki raised his right hand into the air, as if trying to block my verbal barrage. He must have used some kind of buff, because the light around the Archangel shone even brighter as it pummeled Asamiya’s familiar. It was driven to the brink of death in an instant, but despite an “Ooh, rough,” from Asamiya, she didn’t look too perturbed. After all…

“Heh-heh-heh… Looks like you’re up to something interesting! And I heard anyone can participate, so there’s no way that I, as the protagonist, can’t show up! Having just brilliantly won against the final boss’s lackey, it’s now time for me to face off against the Archangel!!”

“Don’t twist the facts, girl. I agreed to a draw because you wouldn’t stop talking the whole damn fight.”

Despite their squabbling, Yumeno and Fujishiro were joining our side. The latter gave me a quick glance, then stood next to Minami, his eyes sharpened upon Tsuzuki. It looked like Misaki Yumeno made the snap decision to join in, too—and this time, she was yapping at the Archangel, not me.

“…Shinohara, can you hear me?”

As if these newcomers weren’t enough activity for me to deal with, Enomoto’s voice came through my device.

“I have some information. Right now, almost all the teams in the Game have stopped their own business and are watching your battle unfold. Three of them are already within Ward Zero, and at least four more are on their way. We’ll probably see half the player base participating by the end.”

“Great. Way to fan the flames, Enomoto.”

“It wasn’t me. Noa Akizuki deserves the credit this time. She harnessed everything she could to incite this—STOC, IslandTube, you name it. She’s out of the Game, but you know she’s a genius at getting people to act.”

“…Ah yeah.”

I chuckled. My mind already had a picture of the sorts of things she was no doubt doing.

So after a few turns of me fighting alongside Asamiya and Yumeno, other teams began to join the fray against the Archangel, one after the other. Since they were “new challengers,” they were free to fight against any opponent they wanted to here, but I guess nobody wanted to ignore the all-powerful Archangel right now, so most players had their devices aimed right at Koto Tsuzuki. There were seven teams and over thirty people on our side at this point—a gigantic melee.

But then…

“Useless… Useless, useless! If all you trash are siding with evil, I’ll destroy every one of you right here!”

It seems this might be exactly the situation Tsuzuki had been hoping for. After buffing his Archangel up to berserker level, he selected a special group-attack command—Abyssal Pyre. A skill of the B-class Hellhound, it was a super-wide-range strike with 50 ATK behind it. If you didn’t have a defensive command in place, you were guaranteed an instant death. However, another voice suddenly spoke up.

“Are you sure about that, Koto? I put that command in place for you, you realize.”

“…?!”

The next instant, there was a deafening roar as an explosion rocked the Archangel. All the players, not realizing what had happened, stared wide-eyed at the sight—but Minakami, who was next to me again, gently placed her right hand on her chest.

“A group attack like Abyssal Pyre is perfect for this kind of situation, so I was sure you’d select it. But there’s actually a pretty big risk with this command. If you miss even one strike at your opponents, your attack fails and is reflected back at your own familiar!”

“Wha…? Oh! Hiroto Shinohara’s Fairy!”

“That’s right. The Archangel has tons of Defense and Life Points, of course, so he can’t beat her in a single blow. If he misses this chance, she’ll just heal herself back up. But at least for now, Koto, you have no way to defend yourself!”

As she made this declaration, Minakami cut her right hand down through the air.

“““…Raaaaaaaaaaaah!!”””

All the players in the battle raised a mighty roar… And from there, it was over in the blink of an eye. The Archangel who once seemed invincible was showered with waves of attacks, and her LP was quickly whittled away. It was around this point that Hollow Creator also stopped working, so the divine figure reverted back into a black whirlpool that shriveled up and disappeared.

Seeing that this was the end for him, Koto Tsuzuki stood there in a daze.

“I lost… I lost? Me? Kaoru Saeki read this wrong…?”

His muttering was tinged with anguish, regret, and most of all astonishment. He probably didn’t expect to lose to me for a moment. He thought he was on the side of justice, that he’d naturally win, but then I—or, I suppose, the legitimate justice of Mari Minakami—had tripped him up.

“Well done, Master…but it’s not over yet.”

Huh? …Oh. Yeah, you’re right, Himeji.

I relaxed a bit and nodded at Himeji’s cool voice settled against my eardrum. Since we were still in free-for-all mode, the Archangel’s death alone wouldn’t end the battle. We now had nearly ten teams on hand, all watching intently for a chance to swoop in and take the victory.

But we came prepared for this.

Despite it all, I let out a small, self-assured smile and glanced down at my device. It showed the current status of my familiar, the C-class Fairy—but the numbers were a far cry from what I’d started with.

ATK: 1 (+46) DEF: 1 (+32) SPD: 15 (+99) LP: 1 (+80)

…Yes.

To be honest, I didn’t suggest that rule set just to stall for time or add more strength to my side. With these rules, the battle would just keep on going no matter how many participants there were, so all the base command-driven stat buffs would keep whittling along as well. With the full extent of Fragile Covenant and the family of chain commands at your disposal, pretty soon you’d produce a demon with stats even the Archangel would drool over.

“…Hah!”

So I instructed Minami, Fujishiro, and Nitta to finally break our Fragile Covenant and lift our self-imposed ban on skill commands. Nitta no longer had any reason to mess with our team, and our stats were certainly buffed enough. All we had to do now was stomp our enemies down.

“Well… Shall we? It’s time to kick off round two…even though the ending’s already set in stone.”

I grinned. And it didn’t take all that much longer for the last team’s familiar to fall.