Chapter 80: Metamorphosis

Immediately after, almost everyone moved.

First, two members of the Kihara clan—Amata-san and Byouri-san—headed toward Gensei-san. Following them, Kakine-san also went in Gensei’s direction. At almost the same time, Sugitama-san started toward Mikoto-san, and that’s where we and Kamijou-san made eye contact.

Seeing that we were hesitating whether to head toward Mikoto-san or Kazakiri-san, Kamijou-san, without a word, sprinted straight for Mikoto-san. …I see. So he’s saying he’ll "leave" Kazakiri-san to us.

《Reicia-chan!》

《Yes! If it’s Kamijou, he might recklessly erase Kazakiri altogether… Let’s go!》

"Hey! Why the hell are you trying to go that way!? We’re short on numbers as it is, and that thing over there looks way more dangerous, doesn’t it!? Your rifts don’t even work against that one! In that case, isn’t the Third Rank the better choice!??"

"Do you really think Mikoto, in her current state, could still be contained as just the Third Rank!?"

"………,"

Behind us as we ran, Baba-san said something obvious, and Reicia-chan fired back.
Maybe Baba-san realized she was right, because he stopped talking back.

"'Rift' doesn’t have the durability to match Kazakiri-san’s attacks, true, just as you said. But we have mobility and number of strikes. With your instructions, we should be able to hold our ground better against Mikoto-san’s lightning speed."

"…Dammit!! I wanna run!! Get me out of here!! Stayin’ in this kind of environment too long’s gonna give me claustrophobia!!"

"If you run here, Academy City will be destroyed either way!!"

Shouting that, Reicia-chan sharpened her storm into a spear and slammed the 『Spear of Storms, Bomber Lance』 into Kazakiri-san’s thunderous wings.

Even if air was an uncertain medium, a blow that concentrated the full strength of a Level 5 esper managed to punch holes in parts of Kazakiri-san’s wings. The fact that the wings had been drifting without strong direction probably helped. Still, the information that "our power could cause damage" was apparently positive news for Baba-san.

"…When this fight’s over, you guys better remember this! I won’t be satisfied with just some half-assed reward!!"

"Who do you think I am? Achievements deserve rewards. That’s the foundation of trust!"

"It’s not trust!! It’s mutual benefit!!"

And so the matter was settled. The three of us lunged at Kazakiri-san. But the cast didn’t stop there.

"Reicia-saaaan!! May I join youuu~!?"

"Uwah… Souji-kun, don’t suddenly raise your energy like that, you scared me."

Kihara Souji.
And with him, another one—a girl with hair in buns, another "Kihara," slipped through the gaps in our storm without hesitation, closing in.

"…To think you’d dare show yourself before me."

"Aa-aa, I really must apologize for back then. But rest assured, I’m not thinking of experimenting on you anymore, Reicia-san."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks to Grandpa Gensei, the city ended up like this… I feel really bad about it."

………Souji-san, honestly, I feel like I could just leave him be at this point. But what about this bun-haired girl???
I mean, isn’t she that one—Volume 4 of the New Testament arc, during the Baggage City turmoil—a 'Kihara' who was deployed there, Kihara Enshuu? On the surface, she looked like a sweet girl, but once the mask came off, she was just another dangerous Kihara… If I remember right, it was less that she hadn’t 'awakened' as a Kihara, and more that her raw potential alone already made her formidable.

…Well, that said, rejecting cooperation outright isn’t wise either! There’s a difference between keeping cautious and refusing to ally. Even if I need to stay wary, let’s proceed under the assumption of cooperation!

《Shiren? I’m picking up some kind of overwhelming nice-guy aura from you.》

"Pleasure working with you! I’m Shiren. And you are?"

"I’m Kihara Enshuu. Nice to meet you, Reicia-chan!"

I deliberately ignored Reicia-chan’s squinty-eyed remark and exchanged greetings with Enshuu-san. But I couldn’t let my guard down.

"Another Four, the Hidden Fourth Rank! The next strike’s coming! Just flying up won’t cut it—fly diagonally back, away from it! Otherwise you won’t be able to evade the wing’s pursuit!"

"Understood!"

Following Baba-san’s instructions, we manipulated the 'Rift' to evade.

Meanwhile, the two remaining Kiharas on the ground… they weren’t fazed by the light at all, calmly holding their positions. They weren’t charging in recklessly, but they weren’t fleeing either.

Naturally, Kazakiri-san turned to target Souji-san and Enshuu-san nearby…

"You really think I’d just let that happen!?"

If the pressure of our attacks eased up, we’d gain more breathing room too. With 'Storm,' I tried to blast Kazakiri-san’s body away. Of course, the wings blocked it, but the instant her attention wavered, the 'Kiharas' didn’t waste the chance.

"So, Enshuu?"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, Souji-kun. When a Kihara discovers something unknown, the first thing we do is this!!"

From Enshuu-san’s neck, countless cellphones flared to life, projecting graphs, and then the rubble scattered around suddenly rose into the air.
No—that wasn’t sudden. It was lifted by vibrations in the air…?

"Ultrasonic levitation. Well, the method doesn’t really matter since we’ll swap it out anyway, but if you want to use your tools to efficiently analyze the specs of what’s happening before you, in this case the quickest way is just to hurl rubble!"

Doooooooon!!!

Chunks of rubble, some the size of a head, others as large as beasts, swarmed toward Kazakiri-san. Their motion wasn’t simply that of 'objects floated by ultrasound.' The three-dimensional maneuvering had already reached the realm of telekinesis.

Even if you understood the principle, it’s unclear if you could really replicate it. How in the world did they manage to apply it to wield this much power? There’s no real image to grasp.

…Kihara. Once again, I was reminded of their abnormality.

"What are you spacing out for, idiot!? You can do that too, can’t you!? Support them, support them!! Otherwise even a Kihara will get worn down! And if that happens, we’re next!!"

And then, from behind us, Baba-san barked out a rallying cry.

No, wait—"I can do it," he says, but… Sure, I’ve produced ultrasonic waves before by manipulating wind, but I’ve never controlled them with that much precision. And seriously, do sound waves even make objects float? Especially chunks of rubble that heavy?

"That works by intersecting multiple ultrasonic waves to form a 'focus point,' then wrapping the object inside it. After that, you can move the focus, and the object moves along with it. Well? You can manage that, right!?"

…Now that he explained it like that.
Hearing the principle laid out clearly, it did feel like an extension of the applications I’d already been using. I mean, I know it makes me sound simple, but… Baba-san’s explanation really was easy to grasp.

"…Well, it’s not something I can’t do."

Reicia-chan nodded, and together we tested it, lifting a few pieces of rubble into the air.

Whoosh!

I casually waved my right hand like a conductor, thinking vaguely how cool it would be if we could lift twenty or so pieces. But right before my eyes, more than a hundred chunks floated up at once.

…No no no no, this is ridiculous. Isn’t this already on par with telekinesis? Forget versatility—this is something else entirely.

"Kazakiri-san is just being manipulated. We must try to avoid hurting her… We’ll capture her!!"

Calling out to the two Kiharas, I focused my mind on the calculations.

The air currents generated by releasing 'Rift' were already interfering with the airflow within dozens of meters around us. I carefully mapped them out.

From the discrepancies between the predicted air currents I calculated and the actual flows, I could reverse-engineer the movement of foreign objects. Even without seeing them, the anomalies emerging in the process painted a perfect picture of the motions of everything within dozens of meters.

This was the landscape seen by a Level 5 esper.

Not with the eyes.

But by observing with ability.

…No wonder they say a Level 5 is worth an entire division. Yeah, this really is on another level.

"It may be a bit cramped… but please bear with it!!"

"Spare some of that consideration for me too, will you?"

Gwoooosh!! Countless chunks of rubble hurtled toward Kazakiri-san.
But they weren’t meant to crush her. They were positioned like prison bars, designed to restrain her.

If it had been just rubble piled up, she’d blow them away easily. But these were held by ultrasonic levitation, force already acting on them. Even if we couldn’t perfectly contain her, at least it might slow her down…

"!! Defend, Another Four, the Hidden Fourth Rank!!"

At that moment, Baba-san’s sharp voice reached us.

Before I even had time to react to his words, Reicia-chan unfolded a transparent 'Rift.'

We made it in the nick of time. From Kazakiri-san’s back, a massive light burst forth, blasting rubble of all sizes away like sand and pebbles.

The chunks we had used as a cage turned into lethal projectiles, scattering like a shotgun blast aimed at our lives.

"So it had no effect at all… Well, I suppose the moment 'Rift' proved useless, that much was obvious."

Each fragment flew with a velocity comparable to Mikoto-san’s Railgun. But our current, full-powered 'Rift' could block something of Railgun’s caliber with ease.

I deliberately lowered the output to keep it transparent, using it both for defense and to observe the enemy’s response. And that’s when I realized I’d been played.

Because beyond the 'Rift,' Souji-san was grinning at us with a vicious smile.

《No way… He deliberately used the rubble offensively, knowing we’d be forced to defend and split our focus!?》

Of course, those bastards dodged every single piece of rubble with that incomprehensible science of theirs—probably some kind of ultrasound that deflected the trajectory of the debris as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

On top of that, the two members of the Kihara family, who had avoided the crisis with almost no effort at all, could even afford to throw in one extra action.

──As if to back up that worst-case inspiration, Enshuu-san’s smartphones began flashing, displaying graphs of all different kinds.

"Sorry, the only onee-chan. You’re right, if you’re a Ki-ha-ra, then the very first thing you’d do after getting your hands on a color-less, transparent toy would be exactly this……!!"

With a BAM!! Enshuu-san spread her arms wide.

Nothing. Hap-pen-ed.

What actually happened came a few seconds later.

DOVOBOVOBABOHHHH!!!! It was like the place where Kazakiri-san had been standing suddenly turned into the base of a waterfall—the sound of air violently crashing against itself erupted from that point.

"An’ sooo! If you’ve got sound waves that can shake any matter you want, then the first thing a Ki-ha-ra would try is messing up the target’s own brain, turning it into a sloppy SHAKE!!!!"

"Aaah, aaah…… But if you smash someone’s brain to mush, it’s a real pain to find a 'replacement.' What a waste, considering she could’ve been a perfect substitute for that one and only Accelerator…"

……! That’s it! They used ultrasound to bypass Kazakiri-san’s defensive lightning wings, directly attacking her insides……! But……!

"……!!"

With a snap judgment, I deployed my black-and-white "Crack," turning it into a "shield" for Souji-san and Enshuu-san. The fact that the returning strike from the lightning wings managed to defend in time—honestly, without the knowledge I’d gained from seeing the true history and learning about her body’s structure, it would’ve been impossible.

"Wha, what’s going on!? I definitely calculated that the sound waves would scramble her brain into smoothie mush… what kind of ability is this!?"

"This is fascinating… I wonder what kind of replacement it would take to break that down!!"

"……She is, an aggregation of AIM."

As expected, there’s no way the science side could see her for what she really is on first glance and just call her a monster or something like that. Amata-san figured it out instantly and got all worked up about it, but normally, yeah, this is the logical assumption.

"The electromagnetic waves of an Electromaster’s electricity substitute for bioelectric currents. The heat of a Pyrokinesis user substitutes for body temperature. ……That’s how the AIM diffusion field covered all 'components of a human as seen from outside,' and created this existence………… or at least, that’s what I’ve been told."

To correct that misunderstanding, I spoke up.

"……In other words, Kazakiri-san doesn’t have internal organs. No matter how much you shake her 'body,' you can’t cause any fatal damage."

"Hah… hahaha! What the hell is that!? Isn’t that just too fascinating!? An existence shaped by esper abilities, neither organic nor inorganic! A being that steps outside the framework defined by the presence or absence of carbon! Yes… YES, what a perfect research theme!! With that…… you could replace absolutely anything, even rival Dark Matter itself!!"

"Ah—… Souji-kun’s lost it. Yep, yep. I get it, Amata-ojisan. So in times like this, if we don’t snap Souji-kun back to sanity right away, he’ll just die on us, huh?"

WHAM!!

Without hesitation, Enshuu-san struck Souji-san in the back of the head. It was the kind of blow that would have knocked out an ordinary person instantly, but somehow, Souji-san only staggered a little and even had the composure to glance back at Enshuu-san as if nothing had happened.

"He-yy, I was just try-ing to bleed out the blood that went up to your head, but you’re tougher than I thought, your skull’s pret-ty hard…… That’s what a 'Kihara' would say, right? Am I doin’ it right?"

"……The fact you’re asking whether you’re right or not already shows you’re not 'Kihara' enough. But fine, I’ll let it slide."

With that, it seemed the two from the Kihara family gave up on further attacks. As if to reset the fight, they walked closer toward us.

"B-but…… what do we do now!? The Kihara family’s bizarre attacks don’t work, Jagged Edge doesn’t work either……! We have no way to break through, no strategy, no—"

"Nahhh? If it’s just strategies, there are plenty of things we can replace. That much at least, yeah."

We were cornered. To be honest, I agreed with Baba-san’s lament. But Souji-san, on the other hand, only chuckled as if he were bored.

"Actually, it’s already over."

──WEEEEEEEEN.

Beyond the "Crack," some kind of sound echoed. ……Ultrasound. But the output was so high that the "aftereffects" had slipped into a range audible to human ears. But wait……? They already used ultrasound on Kazakiri-san, and it failed……?

"Do you know about AIM Jammers?"

Souji-san said it as lightly as if he were humming a tune.

"It’s a device that intentionally causes esper abilities to go berserk by scattering the AIM diffusion field. Supposedly, it uses the research of our own Nayuta and Therestina-san."

What he pulled out was a small device, like a music player. Only, not just one—countless of them. ……Each one had a propeller on the back. So that’s it. He launched a swarm of them into the air like drones. The ultrasonic attacks from earlier had been coming from those……

"Well, to be blunt, the principle is just 'ultrasound,' you know?"

Immediately after—

Part of Kazakiri-san’s wings was blown clean off in an explosion.

"……If she’s nothing but a lump of AIM, then naturally she’s powerless against an 'attack that disrupts AIM,' right?"

"……!!!!"

D…damn it, I underestimated them. Somewhere deep down, I’d convinced myself that even if Souji-san or Enshuu-san could wound Kazakiri-san, they couldn’t actually 'kill' her. That in this battlefield, the only one who could kill her was Kamijou-san with his Imagine Breaker……

But that was completely wrong. In fact, the ones who could kill her right here, right now, were……!

"Hey, hey!! Now’s not the time to zone out! That monster’s wing that just got torn off…!"

At those words, I turned my gaze to Kazakiri-san’s wings—and froze.

Why? Because the severed wing had transformed into scattered orbs, hanging in the air with a precise rhythm, as if preparing for an attack.

"M…Madness…!?"

She’s gonna slam all those at once!? Even if you tried to scatter them with an AIM Jammer, there’s no way you’d keep up! Not even the Crack’s full defense could stop that……! The only option is to fly and dodge—

"Yep. Exactly, Kagun-ojisan."

With a sharp tap, Enshuu-san darted forward.

"If you’re a Ki-ha-ra, then at a time like this—rather than turtling up and getting crushed—you’d say something like this."

Enshuu-san didn’t hesitate.

"Hey, you holy roller with the flying wings! Ever heard of a dust ex-plo-sion!?"

Sound vanished.

I didn’t know what she did. Maybe she used the rubble dust, maybe hidden explosives. Whatever it was, the fact remained: Enshuu-chan triggered countless blasts midair—and every single one of the light bullets filling the sky was caught in the chain reaction, exploding one after another.

"A-amazing……! I couldn’t even begin to understand what she just did……!"

"This isn’t the time to be impressed! She probably got a taste for it and will try the same thing again! If she keeps that up endlessly, we’ll run out of fuel for explosions! We’ve got to do something, something…!"

Baba-san’s concern was spot on.

At this rate, we were being whittled down. The balance of offense and defense between us and them was already too lopsided. Every desperate defense we stacked up was equal only to one of their straightforward strikes. Each time we dodged one of their blows—delivered with all the effort of a casual jab—we drained ourselves further.

Baba-san’s worry was grounded in harsh reality—yet he hadn’t prepared for the worst.

For instance.

What if, instead of her untouchable long-range attacks, Kazakiri-san suddenly switched to all-out close-range combat?

──Just like that.

"You’ve got to be kidding—!!"

Almost at the same moment Enshuu-san cried out—

GOGGIIIIINNN!!!!

The sound thundered as Kazakiri-san mowed Enshuu-san down, sending her flying several meters without even bouncing once. She spun through the air like a dry twig before splatting onto the ground.

It wasn’t the way a human body should ever land.

"E-Enshuu-san……!?"

"Tch…… Couldn’t you at least have died after doing something useful!?"

Souji-san didn’t flinch in the slightest as he prepared to fire the AIM Jammer again.

But—

BOBABBABBABBABAHHH!!!!

As if she had anticipated it, a series of small explosions erupted around Kazakiri-san’s body, spawned from the orbs of light.

Ultrasound is air vibrations.

Which means—if explosions disrupt the air’s vibration, then the AIM Jammer can’t function as an AIM Jammer.

As Souji-san lost his strongest spear, I instantly deployed my "Crack" in his place.

If it were one of those incomprehensible energy blasts like the lightning wings, that would be one thing. But Kazakiri-san’s own movement—the force driving her body forward—that should only be kinetic energy. Unless she had some absurd acceleration behind her, I should be able to block it…… or so I thought.

《Wh—what is this feeling!?》

The moment Kazakiri-san’s body touched the "Crack," a shock ran through us.

The Crack warped as if it were sugar candy—and then burst apart, more fragile than a soap bubble.

"……!!!!"

The only reason we managed to dodge it was because we’d considered this possibility, even if only for a moment. Maybe that fleeting thought was what let us avoid freezing up when the "Crack" was destroyed and instead immediately shift into evasive maneuvers.

Apparently, Souji-san had the same idea. He skipped away like he was bouncing, dodging Kazakiri-san’s attack. Even so, he still got lightly blown back by the shockwave of the charge…

I, too, used the full propulsion of the "Crack’s" violent gusts to escape upward into the sky.

"Fine if it’s with full force, but didn’t that thing just now break through just by touching it!? You never told me that!?"

Now that we’d escaped danger, Reicia-chan couldn’t hold back her voice any longer. Yeah. I agreed with her. AIM was one thing, but Kazakiri-san herself wasn’t supposed to have any special kind of physical attack.

…Or rather, I’d just gone along with the assumption of "Well, she’s an Angel of AIM, of course she can," but in the first place, the fact her lightning wings could pierce through our "Crack" was already strange. Sure, back in the latter half of Old Testament, when Kazakiri-san was at full power, maybe she could’ve unleashed that kind of output. But the Kazakiri-san now—thanks to her own efforts—was at most city-destroying level. If the destructive force was only comparable to a crane swinging an iron ball, there’s no reason the "Crack" wouldn’t be able to block it.

"Hey… this is just a thought I had."

That was when Baba-san spoke up.

"I know that Jagged Edge, the black-and-white saw-blade, can block light and electricity. That means… basically, as your ability has grown, the region you can cut has gotten more precise… in other words, the filter you use to block things has become finer, right?"

"……,"

"But then… are you really sure it’s okay to lump something that unscientific in the same category as light and electricity?"

……!

"Y-you’re right…! It’s only natural when you think about it. Even if, to the naked eye, it looks like nothing but a straightforward charge, as if it’s just kinetic energy at work… just like how the 'movement of electrons' produces electrical energy, it’s unnatural for the 'movement of AIM,' a substance that doesn’t exist in the natural world, to produce nothing more than plain kinetic energy…!"

Back when the "Crack" could only sever matter at the molecular level, electricity pierced straight through and hurt me.

It’s the same thing here. If we’re going to fight AIM, then we need to use "Cracks" that take AIM into account as well…!

《…I understand the logic. But Shiren, what are you going to do!? There’s no way you can suddenly do something like that, it’s impos—》

《No, it’s impossible, but, I’ll do it.》

Because I know. I’ve read it.

There exists an esper who, in a desperate pinch, incorporated the AIM diffusion field into their calculation domain. …Wait, in the story, was it never outright called AIM? But still… there’s no doubt they manipulated the vectors of the AIM diffusion field.

Doesn’t matter. What matters is believing it’s possible. That’s something this battle has hammered into me over and over again.

Fortunately, after getting broken through so many times, I’ve developed a sense of AIM interference against my skin. I’ll use that as a guide, and try to forge a "Crack" that incorporates even AIM itself—

And then.

That was when a strange sensation struck us.

Something… the "Crack" was being warped in some direction I hadn’t accounted for…?

《This feeling… it’s just like when I tried to create a 'Crack' corresponding to higher dimensions to counter Awaki Musujime……!?》

……! No time to think! Kazakiri-san’s eyes were on us! If I couldn’t deploy a "Crack" that included AIM in the calculation domain, then it was game over for us too!

Even as that unexpected sensation threatened to break my concentration, I forced the "Crack" into manifestation.

This was it. This strange sensation. The "Crack" stretching into a direction that couldn’t be captured by visual information. If before it was like extending branches, then this time it was like planting roots… following that feeling into the abyss, I extended my power.

And as that sensation became sharper, more refined— BZZZZZHHHHH!!!! With a bursting sound, the "Crack" exploded apart.

Chapter 2: I Won’t Choose Between Two Options – PHASE-NEXT.
Episode 68: Metamorphosis – Final_Phase.

"……!"

Our throats instinctively went dry. Beyond the ruptured 『Fissure』, Kazakiri-san had lost her stance as though she’d been struck by something.

…Yes! It still seemed incomplete, but it looked like I managed to manifest it properly! If I just refine this sensation further—

Just as I was thinking that—

Kazakiri-san, who had been forced back near the ground, was suddenly swept away by a blast of wind.

Floating in midair, I barely managed to escape the range of that shockwave, but… what the hell was that!?

Panicking, I reached out with my ability’s perception to scan the surroundings.

When the blast went off, the air currents had been too chaotic to tell, but now… now I could sense it.

Mikoto-san seems frozen in place. Kamijou-san and Sogiita-san are still on their feet.

As for Enshuu-san… wait, her position is different. Looks like that earlier strike didn’t take her out, but either way, she’s been knocked down by that blast. Same with Souji-san. Both of them were blown away.

Kazakiri-san, who had crashed to the ground, was also motionless. As if receiving some kind of signal, she just stood there stock-still, not moving an inch.

And finally, I turned my awareness toward Gensei-san’s battlefield.

There────

──stood a single figure.

No, I didn’t even need to use my ability.

The dust cloud kicked up by the explosion had already cleared. Which meant I could see clearly.

Near “him,” two adults lay collapsed.

Kihara Amata.
And Kihara Byouri.

Around Byouri, a scattering of gadgets lay clattering in ruin, every last one destroyed. Among them were fragments that looked like pieces of white wings.

And further back────

Kakine Teitoku was down on one knee.

"Oh? Oooh? Oooooh…?"

Facing the kneeling “angel” was a single old man.

But his form was grotesque.

It was clear his right arm was gone—since we were the ones who took it. But his entire body was lacerated, his right leg petrified, and his left arm covered in bizarre thorns. How could someone in that condition even sustain life functions?

And the crowning horror—his head.

The right half of Kihara Gensei’s face────was split open.

Like a cracked eggshell, the surface of his face shattered, revealing the hollow within. The brain that should have been there… was gone.

"Well, ah—good thing I tampered with the cerebral structure ahead of time, or so… I thought I’d… say, but…"

…No.

That doesn’t matter.

No matter how grotesque his appearance, he’s still a Kihara. Shocking as it is, for me—someone who knows the “True History”—it’s knowledge I’d already braced myself for.

What truly terrified me wasn’t that.

Because I know the “True History”… this sight carried a very particular meaning.

"This is… quite the amusing byproduct, isn’t it…?"

Kihara Gensei was shining with light.

It was a very… complex radiance, so difficult to describe in words. If I had to force an expression… yes.

It was—

Paled.

Glimmering.

Platinum.