Chapter 46: A Girl Named Nishizono Mahiro

The spears of light unleashed by Akegami Sora rained down all at once upon the beast-type Deep Calamities surrounding them.

Before the Deep Calamities could even react, their bodies were torn to shreds and dropped lifelessly to the ground.

"Ghk... this is seriously rough!"

Refusing to show her pain, Sora clenched her teeth and flashed a fearless grin.

"Please don't push yourself too hard, Sora-san."

Even Nagisa, still holding hands with her, had sweat beading across her face.

An immense burden was being transmitted through the Connect Link.

As the rain of spears ceased, the teams stationed nearby charged forward in unison.

In the distance, a gigantic shadow moved slowly.

The Fourth Deep Calamity Disaster — at its center stood a massive hybrid-type Deep Calamity.

A grotesque mass with beast heads and limbs warped across its enormous body.

They had to bring it down.

"《Install》— 'Sound Wave.'"

Nishizono Mahiro stepped forward. Unlike usual, there was no trace of her timid demeanor.

"Just a little... 'Sleep Beat.'"

The Deep Calamities that should have been wiped out by Sora emerged from the rubble once more... only for their bodies to sway unsteadily before collapsing.

"As long as it's only for a bit, I can interfere with them."

"Nice one, Mahhi!"

Without being hindered, everyone pushed deeper into the battlefield.

Each time a Deep Calamity appeared, Sora annihilated it immediately.

"Ahaha."

"Sora-san?"

"Sorry, using this much power is just... unbelievably exhilarating."

Sora steadied her breathing and raised a hand before her.

With a lighthearted laugh, she unleashed the concentrated light gathered in her palm. A cluster of Deep Calamities crumbled apart into mush before vanishing.

"'Nasty Beat.'"

Behind her, Mahiro sent waves of sound flying.

The Deep Calamities slipping through gaps in Sora's attacks froze in place and collapsed to their knees.

The Curse Seekers rushing past finished them off one after another.

Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly — until a gigantic shadow suddenly engulfed the area.

"It's a hybrid-type!"

Someone shouted. The sound of someone gulping nervously echoed out.

Not the central hybrid.

A newly appeared Deep Calamity had emerged — something that looked like three beasts fused together.

"Mahhi, can you handle it?"

"...S-sorry. My Install already wore off."

"Your timing seriously sucks... can't be helped. I'll handle this one—"

"—I'll do it."

Mahiro grabbed Hohana Honaka's hand just as she was about to remove her hair tie.

"Nishizono-san?"

Shinozaki Nagisa, swaying unsteadily, looked toward her — and Mahiro returned the gaze sharply.

It was a fierce glare unlike anything she'd ever shown before.

"《Install》— 'Deep Calamity: Deep Curse.'"

◇◇◇

What kind of person was Nishizono Mahiro?

In simple terms, she had once been just a boy who loved cute things.

She liked stuffed animals and things like that, and more than anything, she wanted to become cute herself.

But in her previous life, Mahiro had been male. Even if he had been somewhat small and naturally cute-looking, there were limits.

It wasn't as though his heart was entirely female.

Even so, the desire to become cute had always been overwhelmingly strong.

He buried those feelings and somehow carried on with daily life.

Little by little, those emotions faded, and just as he finally began adjusting to society, he died from illness through sheer bad luck.

When Mahiro arrived in this world and learned she'd become a girl, her joy was beyond words.

Even if she'd been abandoned by her parents and become an orphan, this world still felt far easier to live in.

So she chose to keep the same name she'd had in her previous life — Mahiro — and decided to live cutely.

As she grew up and looked into the mirror, convinced she could become even cuter someday, Mahiro prioritized cuteness above all else, despite knowing this world was the world of Last Inheritance.

She didn't particularly like her black-and-gray mixed hair or her yellow eyes.

If possible, she would've wanted to look like Akegami Sora.

Even so, she felt she was gradually becoming cuter.

—That changed in middle school.

It wasn't like Akegami Sora, whose sense of personal distance was strange because she'd also been male in a previous life.

Mahiro thought she'd maintained a proper sense of distance as a girl, even if she was perhaps slightly too friendly.

The problem was that she couldn't interact well with other girls. Deep down, the old male self still remained within her, and embarrassment made her neglect building proper relationships.

Ordinary conversations were manageable.

But she could never fit into cliques or social groups like that.

She thought she'd maintained about the same balance with boys, too.

The miscalculation was that Mahiro was viewed as far cuter than she'd expected.

The result of all her efforts led to tragedy.

A cute girl who talked pleasantly with everyone.

That's what people began seeing her as.

Gradually, the girls around her started labeling her as easy, and ugly rumors quietly spread behind her back.

All because a boy who'd become infatuated with Mahiro happened to be the crush of one of the girls leading the social group.

"Hey, you're Mahiro-chan, right? Come with us for a sec."

Then the local delinquents at school set their sights on her and half-forcibly dragged her behind the school building.

"W-what are you doing?!"

"If you're friendly with everybody, then wanna be friendly with us too?"

Wearing vulgar grins, they pinned Mahiro down.

Unable to resist, Mahiro watched as the boys closed in. Their hands touched her body, and at this rate—

"《Ins...tall》— 'You.'"

At the peak of that overwhelming stress, just as she was about to be assaulted by the boys, Mahiro awakened as a Curse Seeker.

As a Curse Seeker, Mahiro's physical strength vastly surpassed theirs. She threw off the boy restraining her and beat every last one of them down.

The next day, suspended from school, Mahiro shut herself inside her home.

She had beaten the boys.

Punched them, kicked them, moved like someone else entirely.

And yet, the fear never disappeared.

The memory of being pinned down by men.

Their disgusting sneers.

Those memories refused to fade.

She pricked her fingertip with a needle. The blood swelling up looked almost like life itself was leaking from her body, and that feeling of loss strangely comforted her.

Then her wrist—

That was how Mahiro learned to preserve her heart through self-harm, repeating it over and over as she slowly broke apart inside.

"So your name is Nishizono Mahiro!? It's really nice to meet you!"

The other turning point in her life was meeting Iijima Kanon.

Unable to properly live through her middle school years—

There was this strange girl who forcefully barged straight into her heart without hesitation.

Come to think of it, there'd been someone like this in that game too, Mahiro vaguely remembered as she let herself get swept along.

There had even been one time Kanon forcibly used a skill to make her think positively, and it felt so disgusting that Mahiro threw up afterward.

Even so, as they spent time together, Mahiro gradually began to heal.

And yet—

"Mahiro-chan, watch out!"

During the Fifth Deep Calamity Disaster, nearly half the Deep Calamities had been defeated by Akegami Sora.

Even so, the remaining Deep Calamities were overwhelming for the Curse Seekers present. In fact, it would've been no surprise if people had died by the narrowest margin.

It was that kind of battlefield.

Mahiro, utterly exhausted, failed to react when a Deep Calamity suddenly appeared.

Trying to protect her, Iijima Kanon suffered horrific injuries.

"I-I'm... totally fine...!"

Blood pouring endlessly from her body, Kanon still forced a smile.

Watching her, Mahiro's heart began crumbling all over again.

It's my fault, my fault, my fault. If I hadn't let my guard down, this never would've happened.

So at the very least, she would take her place.

Mahiro decided she would atone.

Even if she had to push herself recklessly, she'd defeat this Fourth Disaster herself.

Mahiro's skill, Install, wasn't merely the power to copy other Curse Seekers' abilities or Connect Links.

If she truly wished to, she could absorb the target's very existence itself — all of its information — and make that power her own.

Mahiro chose to house the power of the Deep Calamities within herself.