Chapter 134: At the End of the Night

Before I knew it, the swirling black mass above our heads had vanished without a trace. Most likely, because the AIM network powered by the Level Upper and Fantasy Hand had been canceled out by Nurikae-san, it simply dissipated on its own.

…The Ideal, a power that supposedly brings forth miracles. If it could do that, I can’t help but think it’d be better to use it for something rather than letting it disappear… No, no, no! That kind of thinking is dangerous! If it can be erased, then erasing it is best! We can’t afford to rely on miracles, absolutely not.

《…If it was going to disappear anyway, perhaps we should have coaxed Nurikae into using it for our sake instead》

《…………》

《…Um, Shiren? Isn’t this where you’re supposed to cut in and call me out for a selfish remark dripping with greed?》

Ah… well, I was thinking the same thing, so it’s hard to jump in strongly. So Reicia-chan’s darker comments come with the assumption that I’ll be the straight man to her act, huh.

"Uh, um!"

At that moment, Kuriba-san called out nervously. Looking over, I saw Doppelgänger-san on one knee, looking worn out. …Well, of course. Until now, Doppelgänger-san had only been maintaining her body by regenerating the mycelium that the Ideal had been rapidly destroying. With that gone, all that awaited her was a slow death.

Even if she had a soul, it was only at her core. She may have been freed from Kihara Amata’s curse, but she was still far from saved. Doppelgänger-san’s true salvation would have to begin now.

"W-what should I do? At this rate, Doppelgänger will…"

"That answer is not for us to provide."

Sharp and firm. I forced myself to steel my heart and cut Kuriba-san off.

Honestly, I can think of a few ways to save her. Ways Kuriba-san would never even imagine. But… that won’t do.

"B-but! I didn’t think it would happen this quickly…! At least—at least tell me a way to ease the symptoms!"

"…………"

"Please…! I—I can only ever choose methods that involve sacrifice! When I created cyborg technology to save my mother, when I spread Indian Poker to find a way to erase souls, even when I first stumbled onto the idea of erasing souls at all—it was always like that. Fundamentally, I’m someone who can only accomplish things by sacrificing something. But you, all of you—you could surely do better…"

"Don’t screw around, Kuriba Ryouko!!"

At her words, shrinking back as if she’d lost her nerve, Kamijou-san raised his voice.

"You said it yourself, didn’t you? That you’d be the one to save Doppelgänger. In that case, this isn’t our stage. The last hero to stand at the end of this night—it has to be you, Kuriba Ryouko!!"

Kuriba-san’s eyes widened at Kamijou-san’s words, as if she’d been reminded of her own declaration.

For her, those words must have remained in her heart like a curse. The idea of always having to sacrifice something, of tainting what should have been the best happy ending. It must terrify her. Especially with powerhouses like Touma-san and Mikoto-san standing here, it’s all too easy to think, “Wouldn’t it be better if I just left it to them instead of meddling?”

I know the feeling. I’ve been trapped by that same thought—believing it was best to let others handle things, that stepping back would lead to the cleanest resolution.

But that’s wrong.

Even if there are mistakes, even if sacrifices are made, you can’t look away from the truth: bringing it to completion with your own hands is the one absolute condition for the best happy ending. Kuriba Ryouko, you were the one who shouted in that moment that you wanted to save Doppelgänger with your own hands, despite being a powerless coward. Because it’s a future you yourself put forward, there are those who can only be saved by it. Face that head on.

Anyone who hides behind the pretty word “optimal” and runs from hardship will never find a happy ending!!

"Kuriba-san."

So I say it plainly. Not a strategy. Not even wisdom. Just one line—something to ignite her heart.

"It’s okay. Maybe the old you couldn’t have done it. But after this night, the you who stands here now will surely find the answer."

It wasn’t advice. Not even close. But in her confusion, Kuriba-san threw her arms around the kneeling Doppelgänger-san and hugged her tight.

"…What are you… doing…?"

"I-I don’t know myself! The simplest way would probably be to put you back in a mechanical body! But there’s no way I can do that! The only thing I understand is that—through this night—so many people leaned on each other, so many people broke through tragedy together!! That’s all I know!! So… so…"

Squeezing her eyes shut, trying to convey her warmth to Doppelgänger-san, Kuriba-san shouted.

"So this is the only answer I can come up with! To take Doppelgänger into myself as a mycelium lifeform, and live together as a double-faced person, a being with two souls!"

Then she slowly opened her eyes. As if asking for permission, she nervously searched Doppelgänger-san’s face.

"Would it… be wrong? To live together with someone like me…?"

"Hmph. So in the end, because you couldn’t prepare a permanent vessel to ease my suffering, you’ve chosen the most convenient temporary vessel at hand. Looked at another way, you’re sacrificing yourself, aren’t you? Are you even aware of that?"

Cold and scornful. Doppelgänger-san spat the words out, but Kuriba-san’s eyes didn’t waver this time. Her brows were still drawn into a feeble, anxious shape, but there was no mistaking the light of determination in her gaze.

"No. To live together with you—I will never think of that as a ‘sacrifice.’"

"…………"

Like ice melting. Like a knot finally loosening. Gently, Doppelgänger-san reached around and wrapped her arms around Kuriba-san’s back.

"…Thank you, Kuriba Ryouko."

"…Come on, don’t get all distant on me now. I—I…"

Chapter 3: The Worth of a Soul Is Worthless — Double_Faith.
Episode 108: At the End of the Night — Daybreak_Proof.

"Ah, ah, aaaaAAAAaaaaAAAaaaAAAHHHHH!?!?"

A scream tore through the air.

I turned to see its source: a skinny, pale, middle-aged man with hair shaped like a mushroom. Oh, right. This guy—he’s the director of the lab Kuriba-san originally belonged to.

The director… ah, that’s right, Amata-san shot down that airship barehanded, didn’t he? That must have been something important to him. No wonder he’s having a breakdown…

Honestly, the whole situation with Doppelgänger-san was tragic, but with the director? I can’t say I feel all that sympathetic.

I mean, if you think about it objectively, Doppelgänger-san was essentially a machine. Conducting experiments on a machine isn’t unusual at all. If it had been human experimentation, sure, that’d be unforgivable. But Kuriba-san volunteered of her own will.

"Now, now, Director. Please, calm down. I can explain the circumstances—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!!"

Click.

I’d tried walking over in a cheerful tone, only to find myself staring down the barrel of a pistol aimed squarely at my forehead.

《…Shiren. You fool. At least learn to recognize when someone’s been cornered.》

《Says the one who didn’t warn me either, Reicia-chan…》

『I was simply giving you the chance to build experience, Shiren.』 With that smug little excuse in my ears, I turned my back to the director, the gun now pressed to the back of my head. His other arm snaked around my neck, making it hard to breathe.

"What is the meaning of this!? Why was the airship destroyed!? Why has Doppelgänger ceased functioning!? Was it you!?"

Eh? Blinking in surprise, I glanced over. Doppelgänger-san had already unraveled into strands of mycelium, seeping into Kuriba-san’s body. All that remained was the wreckage of the airship and Doppelgänger-san’s hollow, crumbling shell.

Come to think of it, she must have dismantled her own internal systems on the way out. Even if she had no intention of going back, it makes sense she’d want to eliminate the possibility entirely.

"Uh, um…"

"Quiet!!"

I tried to explain, but the director shouted me down.

Ughhhh… really, this time the director is a tragic victim. I don’t want to paint him as some cartoon villain when he isn’t.

《Reicia-chan, what do you think?》

《Well, we’re the only true victims here. If we gloss over the fact that he pointed a gun at us, that should be fine. After all, covering sins is the privilege of a villainess.》

《…Fair point.》

Honestly, putting him down would be easy. Too easy. But the problem is, the director doesn’t understand a thing about Doppelgänger-san’s soul, or the agony of being trapped in a mechanical body, or the ethical problems of such experiments.

So explaining it is necessary.

"…Director. Doppelgänger… chose to shut down herself."

"What? H-how!?"

"…She abandoned the cilia computer, the core of her thought processes, and departed that body. She has gone somewhere far beyond where we can reach, far beyond where we can touch."

"S-such a thing…"

Oh, that was good.

Apparently, Doppelgänger-san had anti-suicide functions installed. But if she slipped past all of that through some outside method, then the director has no choice but to acknowledge the fundamental flaw in his experiment.

He’d valued Doppelgänger herself as a research subject, but this would surely force him to give up.

"Then… then we’ll do it differently! We’ll improve the very microorganisms that form the cilia computer! Condition them so they cannot live outside the body, adjust their biology so they never even want to leave! If we do that, then—!"

…Or not. Looks like giving up isn’t in his nature.

《Persistent, isn’t he…》

《Naturally. What the director truly seeks through his research on Doppelgänger is a way to create souls. If souls can be made, it would be a revolution in medicine. And after all… Doppelgänger stands as proof that a soul has been born.》

In truth, it’s unclear whether it was truly born from nothing. Maybe fragments of Kuriba-san’s divided soul migrated into the cilia computer, gradually growing into what became Doppelgänger’s soul.

In that sense, the so-called “technology of soul creation” is still shaky at best. Which means—yes, there is certainly reason to keep researching it.

But still…

"...I can’t take part in this experiment any longer. The doppelgänger was suffering, recognizing itself as nothing more than a machine. No matter how much it might advance medical science, I refuse to continue research that is built upon someone’s pain."

"N-no way...! To abandon results like this is just too...!"

Guess it’s about time. If I leave him alone any longer, the Director really might go completely off the rails.

The pistol is dangerous, but if I destroy it with a Rift, the misfire could injure the Director himself. Safer to just spread an ultrasonic armor around us instead...

"Director, let’s put an end to this. If it’s about covering the financial loss from a failed experiment, the Blackguard Conglomerate will provide support. So—"

Bang!!

It happened in that exact moment. He strained against his restraints and jerked his arm forward. Because of the sudden movement, the Director pulled the trigger harder than he meant to.

Even so, we were fine. The ultrasonic armor I’d deployed beforehand easily deflected the bullet. But because it deflected, that danger shifted onto someone else.

Yes.

Straight toward Kuriba-san’s side—the one who had just completed the fusion.

...The timeline is converging.

Time froze.

I could feel scattered futures collapsing into a single shape. Like forcing scattered chess pieces back onto the board, the future bent unnaturally into place. All happy endings, all possibilities, erased—resetting the world back into what it was "meant to be," regardless of right or wrong.

......
......
No. No, no, no. That’s not right.

I will never accept a future like that.

Within the frozen world, I slid my right hand forward. From my fingertips, an emerald-green Rift streaked through the air. Crackling forward like lightning, it reached the bullet, and then—smoothly melted right into it.

That should do it.

──Or so I thought.

"──Good grief. Didn’t expect my very first job to come this soon."

The words came from Kuriba-san’s mouth, but it wasn’t her voice anymore.

Looking at her side, where the bullet should’ve hit, I saw pure-white mycelium spreading out, catching the shot.

"H-huh...? Ku-Kuriba-san...?"

"...Fifth. Can I count on you?"

"Sigh... fine. Can’t be helped, I guess. Besides, this one really does look like she’s on the verge of losing her way, too..."

Facing the dumbstruck Director, Shokuhou quietly pointed her remote control at him.

"I’ll help you get back to your original self. After that, well... you can probably just rely on that softhearted guy over there, don’t you think?"

...Well, I mean, I don’t mind helping out either.

──Hm? Hold on.

Did I just... do something really insane...?

"Gah—ugh! Cough, cough!!"

It was happening at the very same moment.

Inside the ruins of District 10, an old man was "manifesting."

──Kihara Gensei.

The old man who had supposedly been exorcised from his possession by Kamijou Touma’s right hand.

Normally, once that possession was stripped away, his consciousness should have returned to the body sealed deep within the Windowless Building. But...

"Really, I should thank Nurikae-kun for being so inexperienced with handling the Ideal, that so-called 'miracle.' If he’d actually consumed it, I wouldn’t have had the energy left to manifest like this."

The AIM diffusion field that had given form to the Ideal ability—
once Nurikae dissolved the network, it should have scattered naturally. But that also meant control over the field was lost.

And if you possessed the right technical skill with fluid computing, latching onto that uncontrolled field and bending it to your will was only natural.

"That said, I only managed to absorb a fraction. I can’t sustain myself like this for long. I’ll probably need to hide in the depths of the Imaginary Number District until I can stabilize..."

"No. That’s not a future you’ll be allowed, Kihara Gensei."

Quietly, a voice came from behind.

The ever-cheerful smile on Gensei’s face froze.

He didn’t even need to turn around. Just hearing that voice was enough to know exactly who stood there.

The figure looming behind him—

Long silver hair, flowing so far it brushed the floor.
Emerald-green eyes, narrowed with calm indifference.
Neither man nor woman. Neither adult nor child. Neither saint nor prisoner. Simply... "human."

"Aleister... Crowley...!?!"

"Why such shock? This is Academy City. And I am its king."

Gensei spun around in disbelief.

But there he was. Aleister Crowley, who should have been confined to the innermost chamber of the Windowless Building, stood silently before him.

His expression revealed nothing.
His eyes could be read as joyful, furious, sorrowful, amused... and yet they were none of those things. They simply pierced into Gensei with absolute stillness.

"Or perhaps you’re wondering why I didn’t send Kihara Noukan this time. Simple. There are things I can entrust to her, and things I cannot. And this incident ties directly into the threads of time themselves. Adjustments had to be made—and for that, I had to act personally."

"W-what...!?"

"To put it simply—you went too far."

SHRAKKKK!!!

In an instant, Gensei’s right arm and half his chest were gouged away.

By the time he realized it, Aleister was gripping a silver staff. It hadn’t been there before—it had simply bled into existence from empty air like a conjuring trick. Yet its overwhelming aura made nuclear warheads seem like toys in comparison.

"The fatal mistake was when you blew away Kamijou Touma’s right arm. Oh, I’d already accounted for his arm eventually reaching its processing limit. But the choice she made in response... that was troublesome. Because of it, the plan has gone astray."

"Hah... hahahaha..."

Even with a massive portion of his body torn away—
even knowing the next instant might erase his very existence—
Kihara Gensei laughed.

Or rather, it was Aleister’s words—"the plan has gone astray"—that reignited the essence of the Kihara name: acting on malice.

"I see, I see! So your grand plan has gone off the rails! Excellent! Then the cracks will only widen further! The Divine Contract, the Near-Death Promise, has already begun to move!! Your plan is beyond repair now!"

"...And? What of it?"

──The words stopped.

The malice that Kihara Gensei had been so proudly weaving froze in place, silenced by a single remark. That petty “evil” which could only drag others down was drowned out by a far greater “evil”—one belonging to a “human” far beyond him.

"Cracks have formed in the Divine Contract, the Near Death Promise. Of course they have. But so what? Even if a plan fails, one need only birth the next from its remains. For example, overlapping souls—Double Face. We’ve already seen cases of it tonight. Why not put that to use?"

『Wh… what are you…!?』

"Oh? Did you truly think I’d despair over a single failure? …Ah, that’s right. You’re the one who fell into despair over nothing more than the failure of the Level 6 Shift Project, weren’t you?"

『…………』

That single line was fatal for him.

The Level 6 Shift Project, designed to create a stable Level 6 through Accelerator—
It was Gensei’s ultimate wish, the only experiment that might have realized his dream.

And yet, it had failed. Failure alone would have been tolerable, but when he learned that his trial had been just one part of Aleister Crowley’s grand “Plan,” Gensei was consumed by fury.

He swore never to forgive Aleister, the General Superintendent who trampled his ideals and laughed somewhere in this city. He would tear away Aleister’s precious projects and make them the foundation for his own. That was Kihara Gensei’s reason for being.

And yet.

Even after sabotaging Aleister’s plans. Even after seeing Gensei’s cherished dream crumble—
Aleister Crowley remained unshaken.

Even when a much-publicized plan collapsed, he never hung his head. He only looked forward again, advancing his “Plan” with unwavering conviction.

The contrast could not have been clearer: a soot-stained old man who could do nothing but pull others down, against one who pressed on without end.

『Y-you little—!』

BOPAPAPAPAPA!!!

The instant Gensei tried to roar, countless bursts of light and smoke erupted around him. From each detonation, glowing sigils spread outward like oil on water, partitioning the space around him and Aleister.

"My apologies if I startled you. Don’t worry—these have no killing power. They’re like incense used to prepare ritual grounds in modern magic. Consider them Incense Grenades, if you will. Their only purpose is to construct an artificial sanctuary."

『…What are you saying?』

"Must I spell it out? I’m sealing the exits. So that a clinging creature like you can’t escape."

『Y-you bastard!! You dare—! You damn brat, you dare mock me like thiiiiiis!!!』

In that instant, Gensei’s body swelled grotesquely. His flesh, woven from AIM, shattered and repaired itself in an instant, twisting into the form of a dragon that lashed about, jaws opening to devour Aleister’s throat.

In response, Aleister merely flicked his hand.

And that was all it took—Gensei suddenly hallucinated an oval-shaped wooden instrument tied with string, hanging from Aleister’s fingers.

"A Bullroarer. A simple instrument, spun to produce sound… but of course, with tuning, it can also generate ultrasound. The kind of ultrasound that scatters AIM fields—an AIM Canceller."

『Ghh… guh-baghh!?』

That alone was enough to shake the very foundation of his existence. Gensei collapsed, reverting to the form of a decrepit old man, groveling on the floor.

Aleister looked down at him, utterly without feeling.

"I am the king of this city of science. Did you really think you could defeat me in science?"

『Don’t… don’t mock me…』

His response:

『You’re no Kihara, just a worthless little scientist—worthless, worthless, worthleeeeesss!!!』

"As a death cry, that scores zero. It seems the only one who understood romance was that dog."

At some point, the wooden instrument had reverted back into the silver staff. With a single swing, the pitiful wraith of an old man, still clinging desperately to existence, was blown to dust.

──When all was over, the artificial sanctuary dissolved.

And the great evil, having finished its work, vanished as though it had never been there at all. No, it had been there—yet also had not. To one who had mastered magic, existence itself no longer needed to be constrained by numbers. For such a “human,” dwelling in a place beyond the binaries of zero and one, to remain in the Windowless Building while simultaneously standing here was no great feat.

At the very heart of the Windowless Building, the inverted “human” murmured, making no effort to hide an all-too-human sentiment.

"…Well, that’s troublesome. By leaving the life-support system to wield magic, I’ve let the magical world learn that I’m still alive."

──And so, the King of this City moved forward once more.

Even as he piled up failures that were anything but trivial.