Chapter 26: Division

The gloomy fog still blanketed our vision.

We couldn't see much of our surroundings, so we couldn't let our guard down.

It should still have been sometime in the early afternoon, but we could barely feel the sunlight.

The dim atmosphere only made my already pessimistic thoughts even more negative.

Was this really the right choice?

I questioned myself as I walked forward, careful not to let my doubts show on my face.

Hazuki and Kanon were following behind me, along with the members of the Sugar Squad.

"Raika. Was this really the right choice?"

Hazuki, who had been walking behind me, caught up and spoke to me in a low voice.

I answered without turning around.

"...What do you mean?"

"Should we really have gone to defeat Yakujin without searching for Shota and the others? That's what I'm asking. ...Are the three of them all right?"

"As I explained before, the toxins in the Special Zone—the 'Land of Filth, Hated'—should disappear once we defeat Yakujin. Besides, based on my guess, they're heading out to defeat Yakujin as well."

Guess? More like I knew.

I'd seen this scene before, as part of BOG's story.

The three who became separated from the main force would help one another and eventually defeat Yakujin.

That's why I knew all three of them would ultimately return safely.

Even so, I couldn't shake the doubt that maybe this wasn't the right choice after all.

"...I don't know either whether this decision was absolutely the right one."

"That's an unusually hesitant thing for you to say, Raika."

Hazuki spoke with a slightly surprised tone.

"But I feel like we can trust him."

The words that came out of my mouth were surprisingly close to what I truly felt.

"Him. If it's him, someone with an ordinary sense of goodness who can suffer just like any other person, then I'm sure he'll overcome this ordeal together with Victoria and Hibari."

I remembered what happened when we stood before the formless god.

I'd been ready to accept everything and die, yet he had saved me through his own ego.

When I remembered that moment, I knew I could trust him.

Not because he was the protagonist of the story.

But because he was himself, I could believe that he would save Hibari and Victoria.

"...!"

My muddled consciousness snapped awake.

I jerked upright, and the first thing I saw was Hibari looking at me with concern.

"Shota, are you okay!?"

"Yeah. Where are we...?"

The fog that had covered my vision until just moments ago had cleared, allowing me to see our surroundings clearly.

The atmosphere here was completely different from the city in Tokyo where we normally fought.

The roadside trees appeared to have withered, with hardly any leaves remaining on them.

Iron bars had been installed over the windows of ordinary office buildings, making them look almost like prisons.

"It looks like we were moved to another part of the Special Zone. ...This scenery looks familiar."

Hibari murmured softly before lowering her head.

"Raika and the others aren't here... Is it just you and me?"

"No. ...Ree-chan was here, but she already went ahead."

Hibari softly called Victoria by her nickname, her voice weak as she lowered her head.

"Victoria... Why would she go on alone?"

"Ree-chan was acting strange... She said, 'At long last, I can fulfill my lifelong wish,' and she wouldn't listen to anything I said... I think she went toward Yakujin."

Ah, I see. She had also lost her homeland to Yakujin.

We needed to catch up to her as quickly as possible. I had no idea what kind of reckless things she might do.

"Do you think we can meet up with everyone from the Fox Squad and Sugar Squad?"

"No. I have no idea where any of the others are."

"So there's an enemy that can use a power to move people to different locations."

'Invasion of Fiction' could wield powers that seemed almost fantastical, but I'd never seen it use anything that could transcend space itself.

"Anyway, according to Mana, we only have about another hour that we can stay here, right? Whether we're going to find Victoria or meet up with Raika and the others, we need to get moving."

"...Yeah, you're right."

I got to my feet and looked around.

As always, there wasn't a single sign of anyone nearby.

I stepped onto the cracked asphalt and started walking.

However, almost immediately after we set off, Hibari called out.

"Wait, Shota. There's something there."

I followed her gaze and focused on the road ahead.

Farther down the empty street, beneath a traffic light that wasn't lit, there was something there.

The shadow slowly approached us, its form becoming clearer.

At first, it looked like an ordinary human being.

A black suit. Leather shoes. A silver wristwatch. Slicked-back black hair.

But as he came close enough for his face to become visible, his unnatural appearance became apparent as well.

"...Aaah."

Several ugly blisters had erupted across the man's face.

He looked absolutely horrible. His eyes were swollen shut, leaving him barely able to see, while his grotesquely swollen lips were an agonizing shade of red.

The man hunched over as he staggered toward us. Once his lifeless eyes clearly recognized our presence, his behavior suddenly changed.

"...A-Aaaaaah!"

The man planted his leather shoes against the ground and broke into a run.

His arms hung limply at his sides, yet his legs moved at an unnaturally rapid pace, propelling his body forward.

It was as though something other than a human being was controlling his body.

Possessed. That was the word that came to mind.

"Shota, what are you doing!? He's coming!"

Hibari's urgent warning brought me back to my senses. She had already deployed the blade from her wand and taken a defensive stance.

The man in front of us wasn't an ordinary human.

With that in mind, it seemed like we'd better fight him seriously.

I drew the sword I carried at my waist for self-defense.

It was far less reliable than wearing Bluffer, but I wasn't particularly good at borrowing Hibari's power.

Hibari was the first to strike.

With the aid of magic, Hibari closed the distance in a single leap, moving as though gravity didn't exist, and brought her blade sharply down.

But the man bent his upper body far backward and dodged it.

There was no preliminary movement whatsoever. It was a completely inhuman motion.

After avoiding the blade, the man suddenly arched his body backward, then something shot out of his mouth.

"What!?"

The black liquid flying through the air came rushing toward Hibari.

Hibari quickly leaped away from the spot, but it seemed a small amount of the spray had still hit her.

Her face turned deathly pale, and she staggered unsteadily on the spot.

"Hibari!"

I stepped in front of her and swung my sword.

The man who had spewed out the spray was already completely defenseless.

I sliced through his body, and he collapsed without even shedding any blood.

The sensation was so insubstantial that it hardly felt like I had cut through a living human being.

Yet the man appeared to have completely ceased all vital activity.

"Hibari, are you okay!?"

"Ugh..."

I rushed over to her as she collapsed to the ground. The color had drained from her face, and she looked like she was in considerable pain.

She tried to stand, but immediately sank back down onto the ground.

"Sorry, everything's spinning... But I'm okay. Let's keep going."

"There's no way you're okay! Let's rest for a bit. I'll lend you my shoulder."

Supporting her limp body, I helped her to her feet.

That said, there didn't seem to be anywhere in this eerie place where we could safely rest.

If we stayed out here on the street, there was a good chance we'd be attacked by some unknown enemy like the one from before.

The office buildings standing empty around us were covered with ominous iron bars, and they didn't look like places we could enter.

"...Shota. Over there."

She pointed with a trembling hand.

What she had spotted was a passenger car abandoned in the middle of the street.

"......"

I laid Hibari down across the back seat.

The Anchor had the power to heal the injuries of a Bluffer.

I sat down in the driver's seat while continuing to hold Hibari's cold hand.

Silence descended upon the car.

It was a silence that made my ears ache.

The now-deserted streets of Tokyo were eerily quiet.

Normally, I never noticed it because one of the squad members was always talking and keeping things lively.

Silence itself was an unsettling thing.

It made me long for the sound of something—anything.

Someone's voice. Birds singing. The sound of cars driving by. The rustling of trees.

I realized that all those sounds had been what kept our hearts at ease.

True silence wasn't something peaceful.

It was simply terrifying.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, I looked toward her lying in the back seat.

"......"

Hibari's empty eyes were gazing out through the car window.

Beyond it lay nothing but the ruined office district.

I wondered what she was thinking as she looked upon her homeland, so completely transformed.

"Hey, Shota."

Her sudden words broke the silence, catching me off guard. Her eyes continued to stare at the city with that same empty light.

"You told me that you'd help me when I needed it, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I haven't changed my mind about that."

I nodded, but her eyes didn't turn toward me.

"If you'd been there in that place at the time, do you think you could have saved everyone?"

"......"

I fell silent, unable to answer her question.

I had gained power.

But I wasn't arrogant enough to claim that I could have resolved the chaos that had engulfed the Special Zone.

"Ah, sorry. It's not like I'm trying to blame you for no reason. ...It's just, I've come to feel that there's only so much a single person can do."

She murmured those words softly.

They were the source of her emptiness.

"You told me to come to you whenever I was having trouble. That genuinely made me happy. Back then, I even felt like you'd saved me. ...But there are problems in this world that people simply can't solve."

I looked toward the city she was staring at.

A business district that people had spent generations building.

Yakujin had destroyed it in a single day.

"Since we're here, could you listen to me talk about some memories for a little while? My memories after the destruction. They're not exactly happy ones."

With that, she gazed into the distance, her expression still empty.