Chapter 156: The Worst to Come
Shiren changed out of her nightwear and into Tokiwadai’s uniform.
It had been just under three months since she began acting as Reicia Blackguard, yet she was already accustomed to the role. Even her grooming as a girl no longer depended on Reicia’s body’s “memory”—she could now manage it entirely on her own.
Naturally, the first thought that came to Shiren’s mind was to seek help from her allies.
The enemy she anticipated was likely among the strongest ever to appear in “the Correct History.” That meant she had no choice but to draw upon every resource available and rely on anyone she could.
Fortunately, the path Shiren had taken had led her to many connections. Each was top-class in their own field: the “Kihara,” Level 5 espers, magicians, the dark side—and Kamijou Touma. If she could rally both the science side and the magic side and shatter every rule in her way, then no matter what enemy she faced, victory would still be possible.
“—Really?”
The voice came from nowhere.
As Shiren adjusted her appearance and ran through her thoughts, someone suddenly spoke.
She lifted her gaze—toward the mirror she had been using.
And within it—
A seductive smile.
The figure of Reicia Blackguard.
Final Chapter: I Don’t Know What “Predestination” Is - Theory was Broken.
Episode 130: The Worst to Come - Never_End.
Shiren pressed a hand to her own cheek.
Of course, the corners of her lips hadn’t so much as twitched. There was no way she herself would wear such a bewitching smile.
“…Who are you? The mastermind finally decides to show herself?”
Remaining wary of her ability, Shiren stepped back from the mirror. And that was when she realized.
—The “fracture” didn’t manifest.
“What…!?”
Her eyes widened, but at the same time, understanding struck.
The Black-and-White Sawtooth Jagged Edge was an ability rooted in Reicia’s perception, Reicia’s power. With Reicia’s soul gone, it was hardly surprising that its use would now be so restricted.
Shiren immediately shifted gears, running through her options.
The recognition of a “self that wasn’t herself” in the mirror—this alone could very well be an enemy attack. She had already lost Reicia. It wouldn’t be strange if a bomb had been planted inside her at the same time.
But she also saw the opportunity in it. If the goal had been her destruction, there would be no need for such a roundabout approach. Whoever this was had already dealt a world-shaking blow by stealing Reicia’s personality, yet they hadn’t killed her—couldn’t kill her. There had to be a reason.
If the figure before her was the mastermind’s mouthpiece, then through this exchange she might catch a glimpse of the smirking puppeteer lurking behind it all.
“Ahhh, wait, wait! It’s not like I have any intention of hurting you!”
So Shiren thought—
But the way Reicia Blackguard in the mirror flailed about was so utterly lacking in tension, so comically absurd, that it almost defied belief.
That was when Shiren noticed. The world around her had fallen still, as though time itself had frozen.
And then came another realization.
The Reicia Blackguard before her—her emerald-green eyes glowed, and parts of her body flickered, glitching like static.
“…? You are…”
“Me? Hmmm… let’s just call me a bug. No, no, no—better yet, call me ‘the Witch,’ if you like.”
With a smile, the Reicia in the mirror—the “Witch”—said this, and then, from who-knows-where, donned a pointed hat as if to match her chosen name.
The hat, too, flickered with static, a perfect reflection of her careless tone.
“Shiren. You’re worried about Reicia vanishing from inside you. But that’s not what you should be guarding against. What matters is that I’ve appeared before you like this. That alone is proof of a massive bad end on the horizon.”
“…?”
Tilting her head, Shiren listened as the Witch in the glitching hat continued.
“You’ve already heard of the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise, haven’t you? Probably from Amata. Your body creates ‘distortions’ in the world. So then—where do you think that distortion is greatest?”
Shiren couldn’t answer right away.
She had heard the outline from Kihara Amata. According to him, her very nature spawned countless parallel worlds, but because each was so small in scope, they collapsed back together almost immediately.
“…You mean me?”
“Exactly! You alone sit at the historical center of distortion, always containing countless possibilities. In other words, you’re the branching point. You should already know this, shouldn’t you? After all, you’ve chosen how the future would converge with your own hands, time and again. That would only be possible if you yourself contained the very forks in possibility.”
“…”
It made sense.
And yet, Shiren wondered—could that really be true? Wasn’t the center of this world supposed to be Kamijou Touma? Even if she was an anomaly, it was hard to believe she held the branching of fate in her hands.
“Of course, there are limits. You can’t perform outrageous feats like a Magic God, rewriting the world itself. You can’t—and you mustn’t—draw in such possibilities. Not as you are now. At best, call it a kind of ‘skill.’ …But that’s only as you are now. The future you is another story.”
The Witch leaned against what looked like a crack stretching through empty space, resting her cheek in her hand.
Shiren couldn’t begin to grasp what her words truly meant—
“Aleister has begun the ‘harvest’ of the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise.”
The Witch suddenly dropped that bombshell.
“Of course, in true fashion for that pretentious, failed would-be mastermind, the harvest failed. Reicia disappearing from inside you—that’s the reason why.”
“What…!?”
At those words, Shiren’s eyes flew wide.
If that was true, then it was salvation. Her enemy might be overwhelming, but at least she had found the point to strike. In that sense, it was a great step forward indeed.
“Still, it’s not as if his scheme ended in complete failure. Thanks to the ritual that tried to tamper with your soul—the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise is now in a half-berserk state.”
Shiren understood exactly what she meant.
After all, even her current existence was sustained only because her and Reicia’s two personalities were resonating together. That bond was already unstable; it wouldn’t be strange if the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise itself began producing dangerous side effects.
“Two hours.”
The Witch cut in sharply, thrusting that number at Shiren as though nailing it into the air.
“Listen carefully. Two hours. That’s all you have. Once that time runs out, the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise will go completely berserk. This isn’t speculation—it’s confirmed.”
Her warning rang out like a string of alarm bells.
For once, the emerald-eyed woman wore a truly serious expression as she gave Shiren her earnest counsel.
“And I’ll say it again. What you should really fear isn’t Reicia’s absence. If it were only that, there would still be ways to handle it. The real problem is me. The fact that you can perceive the Witch in the mirror at all—that’s the greatest omen of a bad end.”
It was the same thing she had said at the start.
But Shiren still couldn’t answer. Not because she didn’t understand—
But because she was beginning to realize, more and more clearly, just who the woman in the mirror truly was.
“To simply find Reicia again, that’s possible. …But an unstable Divine Contract Near-Death Promise, warped by Aleister’s botched interference, won’t necessarily return to normal even if you do. No—in all likelihood, it won’t. …Isn’t that right?”
Recover Reicia’s soul, bring her back, and live happily ever after—if only it were that simple. But if not? If the true final obstacle was the rampage of that special trait—something even Aleister himself had failed to properly control—then the story wasn’t going to end so neatly.
And now, standing here, she was able to perceive the Witch at all.
—Shiren was the branching point.
The place where the world’s “distortion” surfaced most vividly was within Shiren herself.
If so—
Then didn’t that mean the distortions themselves, the “branches,” could give rise to multiple Shirens contained within her very being?
Under normal circumstances, such distortions would never flare up so violently. If that trait truly existed, there would be no explaining why it hadn’t manifested until now.
But now, with the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise going berserk, even the bare minimum rules had collapsed.
It was the same realm once embodied by a certain magician—
A special domain, a trait that surfaced only in those immersed in a reality that could not be explained by zero and one alone.
And the first to step out from within it—was the Witch.
“…Yes. That’s right. I am what became of you. The future ‘what-if’ Shirens who reached the time limit without ever finding the right answer. The remnants of what you could not be.”
She laughed softly, as if shedding invisible tears.
“The future where this incident is avoided—there were countless of those. But if this incident occurs, then with one hundred percent certainty, you’ll be dragged into the rampage of the Divine Contract Near-Death Promise. The two souls will fuse… and become me, the Witch.”
An unavoidable bad end. For now, it was still only one possibility. But the very fact that she could perceive the Witch meant they had already drawn close to that bad end. Perceiving her existence was proof the situation had worsened.
Understanding this, Shiren—
Thud!!
With his right fist, he smashed the mirror.
Within the fractured world, the blonde, green-eyed Witch blinked in surprise. Across the glittering, light-scattering surface, a line of deep red liquid quietly trailed down.
“If it were Reicia-chan, she’d probably be scolding you right about now.”
He thought of the girl who wasn’t there, and let a faint smile rise.
“So in her place, I’ll say it for her: ‘And what are you doing making such a gloomy face? If you really are the shadow of my future, then get desperate and help us seize our happy ending!’”
There was a moment of silence.
And then, the Witch broke into irrepressible laughter.
“Ahaha… ahahahahaha! You really throw words like that at some suspicious nobody who just popped out of nowhere? No, wait—actually, that does sound like something Reicia-chan would say. …No, no, no, no—the truth is, I never intended to give up anyway.”
From within the mirror, the Witch raised her own right fist and met Shiren’s strike. Then she continued:
“──In that case, as a Witch, I suppose it’s only right I grant a little magic to the indomitable Cinderella.”
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