Liar, Liar - Volume 6 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

The End of One War and the Beginning of Another

Halfway through day three of Dropout Tamers, the wild battle that started with our quest to obtain the A-class familiar Suzaku ended in our victory… And as all the participants began to disperse, it was finally time to receive our rewards.

“…? Um, the winner was Shinohara from Team VI, was it not…?”

Delta, the quest guide, was a little confused about my request to give the Suzaku reward to Mari Minakami, but in the end, she nodded and said, “As you wish.” After confirming it on her device, Minakami shook her long black hair and turned to face me.

“Thank you very much. It’s on my device now, so I just need to use this familiar’s intrinsic Ability on you, Shinohara? And defeat you in combat…”

“Yeah, pretty much. I’ll summon a familiar for you to beat up, so have at it.”

“O-okay. And that’ll trigger Suzaku’s Requisition, so I’ll be able to steal the effect placed on you…the ‘remove the Unique Star’ effect.”

Minakami glanced up, her face stern.

“I understand the general flow of it, but…what if I turn traitor? Wouldn’t you lose your Unique Star, then? I mean, I wouldn’t do that… But can you really trust me after all the horrible things I said about you?”

She wasn’t beating around the bush, but there was a hint of anxiety in her voice. I suppose it’s only natural. She did join our side and fight against the Hexagram, but before then, she was in total opposition to me. As serious-minded as she was, I guess it’s not surprising that she’d think I was less than welcoming of her.

And it wasn’t because of that, but my answer was obvious:

“…Of course I can.”

There was no hint of concern on my face.

“Anyone who saw how you tricked Tsuzuki earlier would know that you’re incapable of lying. You’re a strong girl, but you’re not really a schemer like that. And besides…”

“Yes?”

“I told you, you’re already part of our Eimei gang. And I’m not about to start doubting my friends.”

“…You’re not…?” Minakami said, fighting back tears.

Then she unsteadily approached me, all but collapsing as she buried her head against my chest.

?! Wha—wha…? Huh?!

My mind went blank at her sudden action, but I couldn’t let any agitation show. I forced myself to speak up as her carefully groomed hair tickled my arms and cheek.

“Hey, um… What are you doing?”

“Ha-ha… I’m sorry, Shinohara. I let go of my tension a little, and it kind of drained me… Um, can I stay like this for a little bit…?”

Minakami clung tightly to my arms as she naturally looked up into my eyes. With all her nervousness and anxiety mostly gone, the stern tone of her facial expression had faded a bit. There was even a slightly immature, pleading note to it, just like you’d expect from a young underclassman, and—well, what I’m trying to say is that she was incredibly cute.

“…Just this once, all right?”

Himeji’s voice in my right ear sounded pretty pouty as well, although there was a hefty dose of kindness to it. I guess I was safe, after all.

In the battle that immediately ensued, Minakami won as planned, invoking Suzaku’s special Ability Requisition. But we were still in the middle of DOT’s third day, and since we couldn’t get Nitta out of the Game until the night phase, we had to part ways for the time being.

“Hey, Minami, you’re the traitor, aren’t you?”

I broached the subject a few hours later at the same outdoor café as yesterday.

The rest of Team VI was there, too. Fujishiro was looking as fierce as ever, and Minami appeared to be her usual sleepy self, but I think Nitta’s complexion had improved a lot since yesterday. I couldn’t call it “healthy” yet, but at least she wasn’t constantly hanging her head anymore.

Anyway, my sudden accusation made Minami run a hand through her blue hair.

“…? No way… I’m a good girl… I’d never, like…betray someone.”

“I don’t care if you’re good or bad, but it’s pretty damn obvious you’re the traitor. You’re carrying Mind Reader, which gave you insight into chain commands and their effects, Transform, which let you turn that Leviathan into a Hellhound, and Variable Control and Recycle, which you used against Saionji. That’s four Abilities, and only traitors are allowed to install four in this Game.”

“…Mmm. You got me there…”

Minami was feigning all that frustration. Her voice was as calm as ever… And really, maybe she never intended to hide this fact from the start. She must’ve known from day one what Nitta’s deal was, so if Minami could get one more person to side with her, that’d ensure Nitta would never be voted off. It was pretty gutsy, really. As long as she wasn’t in danger of getting booted, she didn’t really care if people knew.

But that wasn’t important any longer. What mattered now was:

“So, Minami, I want to ask you something. Did you need to obtain Suzaku to win Dropout Tamers?”

“…? Why are you asking that…?”

“Because it’s important. Did you—or not?”

“…No, but…”

She was pretending not to understand where I was going with this, but she was pretty emphatic in her denial. Hearing that, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay. Because Minakami—that’s my Eimei classmate we fought earlier—I’m planning on having her release Suzaku later on. If we unlock Saeki’s cloud storage in its current state, Minakami’s Suzaku will automatically get added to it, completing all the B rank and higher familiars, right? Then all the Hexagram members who weren’t called for the Rapture yesterday would clear Stage Four all at once. So we can’t let Suzaku go in there.”

“…So what? The only A-class familiars we need on our team are Genbu and Byakko. As long as we can duplicate the key with your Inferior Copy skill, it doesn’t matter if we have Suzaku or not.”

“Yeah, true.” I sighed. “But there’s a little problem with that.”

To put it simply, it was a lack of capacity. An item duplicated with Inferior Copy can only be used a limited number of times, the exact number depending on the object being copied. Unfortunately, copying a key created by a Unique Star was a lot more taxing than I’d anticipated. It’s definitely not the same as creating bunches of base commands at once.

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you, Minami. Could you maybe use Recycle and Variable Control to restore as many uses of Inferior Copy as you can for me? Not for free, of course—once it’s fully restored, I could duplicate the key for you, too. As long as you meet your victory conditions, I don’t think this ‘Rapture’ cares if you’re a traitor or not.”

“…Not a bad offer. Hee-hee! So the poor delinquent will have to work to death for his own ticket…?”

“Huh? Shut up. I don’t need you feelin’ all sorry for me.”

Fujishiro, after snapping back at Minami, opened his device and showed it to us. On the main screen, with all the familiars lined up…was a key.

“…Huh? Wait, where did you get that?”

“I stole it from Tsuzuki. You know, right after that free-for-all ended and he was on his knees and whining. I thought something like that might happen once you laid out your strategy this morning, so I installed this Ability called Magician’s Bluff and waited for a chance to swipe his resources.”

“Wow… That’s total delinquent behavior. Now you’re robbing people on the street…?”

“…Shut up, pipsqueak.”

Fujishiro attempted to brush Minami away as she gave him a listless round of applause… So that’s why he was so eagerly playing along with this. Calm, bold, and shrewd, too. Once the final battle rolls around, he and Minami are gonna be pretty tough opponents to face.

“Um…Shinohara?”

As I thought about this, absentmindedly scratching my cheek, I heard someone behind me. Mari Minakami was there, so I had her join us to discuss a few things.

Before much longer, the clock struck five o’clock, marking the start of DOT’s night phase. Me, Fujishiro, Minami, and Nitta put our devices on the table; they were all on the elimination vote screen. Nitta’s vote was for me, and everyone else’s was for Nitta.

“Mm…”

This was all prearranged, but Nitta’s expression was very calm. As it should be. For her, elimination meant being freed from her role as an indentured servant, and if she could do that without hurting anyone, there was no better ending for her.

“…Thanks, everyone,” she said, smiling and looking ready to cry once her device confirmed the news.

On the next day—day four of Dropout Tamers, after the results of this vote took effect—things got pretty busy right from the start. With Sana Nitta’s elimination, the Along for the Ride Ability Saeki made her install was activated, triggering the effect of making my Unique Star disappear. However, this Ability was stolen by Suzaku’s Requisition and used to directly target the key of Minakami, Suzaku’s owner. Applying Along for the Ride to the key associated with the locked-down Limited Sharing eliminated the prison effect for good, and the box became just regular cloud storage again. After that, to prevent any more Hexagram members from winning, Minakami released Suzaku back into the quests instead of putting it in the storage.

This caused several players to achieve their victory conditions all at once—those with a key to the Limited Share who didn’t need Suzaku to win. The conditions were the exact same as the previous Rapture, but the faces were completely different. To be exact, Minami, Fujishiro, and I were now heralded on Libra’s official channel as the latest victors.

“…Whoa, huh?”

But as I watched the coverage from the Eimei’s student council office, I raised my eyebrows a bit. Something was weird here. Asamiya’s team needed to acquire Suzaku to win, so even with the key, they shouldn’t have won at the same time we did. Also, by this point, Mari Minakami should have fulfilled all the needed conditions…but there was no report about her name.

What’s going on?

I glanced at Himeji, but just then, my device rang. Seeing the name on the screen, I immediately answered it.

“…Hello? Minakami?”

“Oh, hi, it’s me, Shinohara. Sorry to call you so early.”

“That’s fine, but…what’s up? Why haven’t you won yet?”

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about…”

She paused for a moment, sounding hesitant…or maybe excited?

“I got rid of my key to the Limited Sharing… It’s my way of atoning, you could say. I couldn’t forgive myself for letting you all go to such lengths for me, only to use the Hexagram’s power to win out. So…that’s what I’m doing!”

“No, um… But there’re other Hexagram members running around still. If they grab Suzaku, it’ll all be over, won’t it?”

“Actually, no. There was a usage limit on the Limited Sharing, and I guess if you executed a ‘special clear’—the so-called Rapture—two times, it’s set to self-destruct. Kaoru already did it once, so once you and the other two won, it was gone, you see? So from now on, everybody’s equal in this Game again.”

“…Oh. Really? Well, that puts you at a big disadvantage, doesn’t it? Your team’s in shambles.”

“Well, it’s kind of worse than that, frankly. During yesterday’s elimination vote, I guess two of my teammates tried to hack into my device so they could vote Koto out. But my Iron Justice Ability was active, so the fraud was found immediately and they both got banned from the Game… So now there’s just the two of us. And since I know I’m a normal member, it also confirms that Koto’s the traitor.”

“Oooh…”

“But you know, I can challenge teams to battle even if I’m just by myself!”

Minakami sounded a lot like she was trying to cheer herself up. But if she saw this as a fresh start, then I guess it wasn’t all bad. Her team was beyond repair, yeah, but if the Limited Sharing was gone, all the familiars—A- and S-class included—were freed from the Hexagram’s hands. Now anyone had a chance of nabbing one of the four remaining open slots for the final stage.

“So…wait just a little longer, okay, Shinohara?”

She sounded more refreshed than before, though. Free of burden.

“I threw away the key, but that doesn’t mean I gave up. I’ll beat this Game on my own, so I can become a true companion to you all…following my own sense of justice.”

“You will…? You know you don’t have to do this, though. Why can’t you just lean on people a little more?”

“I get told that a lot. But…don’t worry. I’ll lean on you a whole lot once I’m finished with this. There are many people I want to get back at in the final stage. I wanna give them a good talking-to, you know?”

She was joking with me, but Minakami did seem pretty enthusiastic for the final. That reassured me…but then I gave her a bold smirk.

“Sure thing, Minakami. Lemme see you up here. Because you’re not the only student at Eimei pissed off about this. We all wanna pay those hypocritical bastards back a thousand times. So how ’bout we show them what justice really is?”

…A thud echoed across the room.

“I never thought you’d lose, Koto…”

It was followed by a soft voice, not at all like the previous dull sound. Swinging his fist that he had just buried into the nearest wall, Kaoru Saeki turned toward the girl standing beside him wearing his usual kind smile.

“Miyabi, do you think my strategy was wrong in some way?”

“…Of course not. How could you ever make a mistake, Kaoru?”

The girl sounded absolutely certain about it as she shook her head.

“It wasn’t your fault that we lost. It was Koto’s. He’s not really a Suisei student, nor a Six Star… He’s a fake. He shouldn’t even be serving you, Kaoru. We don’t need him.”

“But he’s an excellent fighter.”

“Whether he’s somewhat competent or not, what’s it matter if he can’t help us reach our goals? If Koto lost to Hiroto Shinohara, that just shows he’s hit his ceiling. It has no effect on our path to glory—or should I say yours, Kaoru?”

“…Ah. I see. Well, good, then.”

Miyabi Akutsu smiled again, never hesitating, as Saeki looked at his device. On it was a list of people who had made it past the semifinal stage.

“Hmm… Pretty scattered results, though. It’s rare for the finals to not be dominated by a single school, isn’t it?”

“Not just rare; we’ve never seen this in history. Shinra’s got the most people in the final, and even that’s just three students.”

“Shinra High School… That’s where Toya Kirigaya goes, right? He’s been eerily quiet up to now, but I suppose he’ll be making waves soon.”

“I don’t care. Besides, if there’s no one dominant school, that means we still retain our advantage… Right, Kaoru? Though, it’s not like the numbers matter at all anyway…”

Miyabi looked over the list of finalists. Not everything had gone according to plan, exactly, but for her, having Kaoru Saeki was enough. The opposite was probably true for him, too. The Hexagram was made for him, after all.

“Ah, but I can’t wait for the final battle,” she said with a cruel smile.