Chapter 117: Another One──

At the very same time Reicia had begun her battle with Mugino, Kamijou and the others were running through the forest, aiming for their original goal: to dispel the possession of Kihara Gensei.

The sound of thunderclouds rolling echoed from afar as they pushed forward, desperately parting the grass and trees to make their way ahead.

"…Hey, are we even going the right way? I mean, we’re kinda just checking the direction through the gaps in the trees as we go…"

"There is no problem. I already confirmed Nurikae-sama’s scent during the Daihaseisai. By strengthening my sense of smell, I can at least determine the general direction."

"……………………Sense of smell?"

"Hokaze-san’s Ten’i Sougi Rampage Dress is not just a simple physical enhancement."

While running, Iruka, who was at the head of the group as if leading them, spoke with an almost intoxicated look in her eyes as she cast her gaze at Hokaze.

"Hokaze-san doesn’t just have physical reinforcement. She has Auto-Reverse for bodily regeneration! Multi-Sensor for enhanced perception! Automata for autonomous control! She’s like a department store of every ability that targets the body itself!!"

"…Yumiya-san, that’s a bit much…"

As Hokaze, running ahead, turned slightly red with embarrassment, Kamijou simply accepted Iruka’s heated explanation and gave a small nod. In short, Hokaze possessed superhuman physical ability. In Kamijou’s mind, a thought that was rather insulting to several parties floated up: "She’s kinda like a lighter version of Kanzaki, maybe?"

──Perhaps it was punishment for thinking something like that.

"Whoa!"

He almost collided with Hokaze, who had suddenly stopped. Kamijou staggered but somehow managed to stop in time.

Before he could complain, however, a shout of surprise left his mouth.

"Eh… what the hell are you doing!?"

Hokaze Junko was crouching low on the spot, holding both palms upward at Kamijou’s feet.

As if to say, “Put something on here.”

Kamijou couldn’t comprehend, but Hokaze, keeping her gaze skyward, continued.

"…Look. Over there, Doppelgänger-san and Gensei-san are fighting. I’ll throw you into the sky, so please use your right hand to cancel the possession."

"Hah!? Oi, oi, oi, there’s no way that’ll work! And what about landing, what the hell am I supposed to—"

"Hokaze-san told you to do it! Hurry up already!!"

"Uwaaaah!! This is tyranny!! Misfortune all around!!!!"

Though he wailed, in a group of women there was nothing as fleeting as a man’s say in the matter. As if pushed along by an irresistible current, Kamijou placed both feet on Hokaze’s hands.

The very next moment—

GUN!!!! A tremendous force, inertia itself, coursed through his entire body. Before Kamijou could fully recognize it, his body was already soaring high into the sky.

"AaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!?!?"

The only reason Kamijou managed to keep a shred of composure after being “launched” was because he had already experienced the phenomenon of being “thrown” once before. Somehow stabilizing his posture midair, he shot straight toward Gensei and the Doppelgänger locked in aerial combat.

But of course—

To think that Gensei and the Doppelgänger, who were trading blows faster than the speed of sound, would fail to react to him was far too naïve.

"──‘The Contract’ never accounted for this one. If he’s an irregular, disposing of him here won’t be a problem."

"Honestly, what a waste… but still. That right hand of yours is nothing but a minus in this situation. You’ll have to exit the stage here."

From the left hand of the Karakuri clad in white vestments, a spear of light formed.

From the cracked, battered right hand of the youth, a scythe of light emerged.

Both were strikes powerful enough to shatter continents. In other words, attacks that Imagine Breaker could never block—certain death. Kamijou realized that in an instant.

"Y-you’ve gotta be kidding!? If you fire off crap like that here, it’s not just me—everybody down below will get wiped out too, you bastards!?"

His desperate cry was met only with mercilessness.

Unwilling to let an unpredictable element onto the battlefield, both monsters unleashed instant-kill attacks straight at Kamijou. At that point, his lifespan seemed reduced to just 0.1 seconds.

"U—"

Imagine Breaker was only one. Kamijou couldn’t possibly stop two certain-death strikes from opposite directions. Even if he somehow tried, he couldn’t block even a single one in the first place.

So Kamijou turned that fact on its head.

"OooooOOOAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

GIIIK!!!!

The trajectory of the Doppelgänger’s strike, which had been aimed to pierce through Kamijou’s right shoulder and beyond into the sky, was caught by his right hand—and twisted.

The strike, no longer holding the shape of a spear, turned into nothing more than a streak of light. It wasn’t erased, but with a loud grin!! the trajectory bent visibly.

"Na…!? He blocked our strike…!?"

"This is it!!"

Of course, even while doing that, Kamijou was blown away by the momentum of the spear he couldn’t fully negate. But in this case, that actually worked in his favor. It bought just enough time for Doppelganger’s spear to collide with the strike unleashed by Gensei.

With a sharp twist, he pulled the warped spear back with all his strength, sending the beam crashing violently into Gensei’s scythe, sparking a chain of small explosions on impact.

"Uwoah!? Oh right, he can twist outputs he can’t negate…!"

"…Unexpected, but it created an opening. In the end, that was the best possible interference."

"…Damn…!"

With a thunderous roar, Gensei—residing within Nurikae’s body—was blown away into the distant sky at meteoric speed.

Kamijou had narrowly escaped death, but a new threat now bared its fangs at him—namely, a free fall from twenty meters up.

"Uwaaaaaaahhh!? I-I-I’m gonna die!?"

"Kamijou-sama!!!"

But Kamijou’s fall did not last the full twenty meters.

From one of the forest’s towering trees, Hokaze leapt out and caught him midair. Hugging Kamijou tightly, she landed on the mountain slope exposed by the battle between Doppelganger and Gensei. Evidently, this plan had been prepared in advance, as the landing site was padded with a thick layer of leaves.

"Th-that was close…"

"…My apologies. I didn’t realize he was fighting with that much leeway…"

And then Kamijou noticed his current position—
a high school boy being princess-carried by a middle school girl.

"………………This whole setup reminds me way too much of what Awatsuki did with Sogiita…"

"E-eh!? You know him? Wait, d-does this mean I’ve reached the same level as that man…!?"

The muscle-brained ojou-sama was shocked for reasons that were rude in their own way.

"M-Mgh! Too close! Hokaze-san, please put him down already!"

At Iruka’s protest, Kamijou was finally set down. Even after only a few seconds, the comfort of solid ground was incomparable. Humans truly were meant to live with their feet planted on the earth, Kamijou thought to himself.

"Our plan failed, and Gensei-san was blown away somewhere. We’ll need to think of another strategy… Wait, is he even still alive?"

"…Yeah. I know how stubborn Kihara Gensei is. He might be using a different body now, but in our last battle he came back over and over, transforming each time like some RPG final boss that doesn’t know when to quit. He’s not the type to die so easily."

"That’s… an unsettling thought."

But Kamijou clenched his fist quietly.

"Even Gensei can’t escape time limits. That’s why he’s so desperate to forcibly absorb Doppelganger. Which means once his time runs out, he’ll hit game over no matter how stubborn he is. We can’t rely on his toughness buying us anything."

"I understand! …Then all the more reason we need to come up with a new plan before then."

Iruka fell into silent thought, while Hokaze gave Kamijou a gentle smile.

"Iruka-san is actually good at devising strategies like this. If she ever joined the Shokuhou faction, she’d be an incredible asset…"

"Never! I’d never serve that woman!!"

"Ehh!? B-but…"

Clearly, faction politics were complicated. Kamijou sensed it was dangerous to pry further, so he turned his attention back to the sky—only to be met with an overwhelming sight.

ZJADADADADADADADA!!

A rain of light poured down on them from above. Hokaze reacted instantly, grabbing Iruka and leaping clear. Kamijou deflected one beam with his right hand, scattering the rest like billiard balls, but the area around them was left scorched and barren.

Above stood Kihara Gensei—completely unscathed, as if their earlier blow hadn’t even scratched him.

『…Looks like he’s recreated my ability in the realm of science.』

Beside Hokaze, a voice whispered. A figure only she could perceive.

──Yuuri Senya.

The esper possessing her body, the girl once saved by Hokaze during the incident where Reicia briefly intervened. Now a Tokiwadai student and member of the Shokuhou faction, she had returned to society, lending her powers to Hokaze in times of crisis.

『If my power uses water as a medium to generate an avatar, supporting the body and mind to enhance output, then he’s the opposite. He uses some other medium, abandons body and mind control entirely, and forces all energy into sheer output. …At that rate, his body won’t last.』

Doppel-computers and possession—two sides of the same coin. Yuuri’s Astral Buddy separated her AIM field, using water as a medium to create avatars. Gensei had found a way to reproduce that phenomenon through science.

Not that he’d aimed to copy Yuuri specifically—his real goal had been to replicate Reicia’s state, and this was just the result.

Still, for Yuuri Senya, whose very essence was helping others by possessing them, this situation was nothing short of humiliating.

"…Senya-san?"

『Junko-chan. I… I’m frustrated. Sure, if I possess you, Junko-chan will be able to freely use your “inner destructive impulse.” But that’s all it is. By possessing you, I can’t give anything beyond what you already carry yourself.』

Until now, that would have been enough.

Hokaze alone couldn’t operate the Ten’i-wearing Rampage Dress at 100 percent. Just being able to do that would have been sufficient cooperation, and Hokaze would have said so. Indeed, Yuuri had been satisfied with that.

But now they had come to realize something.

By combining two personalities, they could surpass their natural output—a single girl who had reached Level 5 esper.

By using another personality as a stepping stone, they could exceed their natural limits—a scientist who had entered the realm of angels.

In both the worlds of good and evil, they had effortlessly transcended their limits in their respective domains.

The metamorphosis of Reicia = Blackguard had taken place right before Hokaze and Yuuri’s eyes.

"…………,"

Because this was clear, Hokaze could not make light of it. She had not been raised to do anything as crude as obstructing her partner’s “metamorphosis.”

"…Indeed. Blackguard-sama has crossed the walls herself. Perhaps we too… should demonstrate our own ‘guts.’"

Lightning danced around her, as if forming a robe around the lady.

──To conclude:

Hokaze Junko could never be considered a Level 5 esper. No matter how superhuman her strength, sensory perception, or regenerative speed became, no matter how high her overall physical capability rose, she would never earn that title.

Because.

It wasn’t by her own power alone.

Reicia = Blackguard had reached that domain with the resources afforded to a single human, even if multiple personalities were involved. That’s why she was recognized as a Level 5 esper.

But to reach that realm, the Ten’i-wearing Rampage Dress required the power of a Yuuri Senya’s Astral Buddy.

Without someone else’s training wheels, it couldn’t even reach that level. Such an incomplete form could never be counted among the ranks of Level 5 espers.

──Conversely.

They—together—could reach that domain.

"We too—"

『We too.』

Chapter 3: The Worth of a Soul is Nothing – Double(Square)_Faith
Episode 97: The Other Squared Personality – Astral-Buddy

"Together, we are one!!!!"