by Unknown
It’s the same as contracts that don’t specify things like who will, by whom, what, when, and how.
It’s fine to wait seventy-two hours, you can accomplish it if you’re a male by dying, only Ino’s dice will be plucked.
The guy who did something so stupid is the Eastern Union’s high official? ……He should be dismissed.
[T-Then, let’s make a deal! I’ll introduce you to a few cute girls!!]
While the proposal resounded——Sora breathed deeply and ridiculingly disregarded it.
“…………Nii, ni-ni-nii, wha, wha, what’s, wrong……”
“Sora, a-are you alright!? Did you hit your head when you fell from the cart!?”
Shiro and Steph, with a face like they saw a ghost, gasped as their voices trembled.
But Sora, with a gentle smile, shook his head elegantly and replied.
“Both of you calm down…… Men are beings that grow up every day, you know?”
That’s right, until a little while ago, I’d have bit into the bait in zero frames.
But now the Eastern Union has merged! There’s as many kemonomimis as lights in the skies to take advantage of!
Sora, 18 years old, still a long way——But! He’s no longer a man hooked by cheap baits!
[There’s a fan club infatuated with Elkia’s King(Sora-dono) who call themselves “I want to be embraced by Sora-sama” Association that’s puzzling the Eastern Union with some incomprehensible testimonies about——]
“Oooh friend, don’t be so cold!! We’re comrades who pledged eternal friendship just now, aren’t we!!!”
——But if the bait is expensive then it’s a different story.
Biting into the bait in zero frames, Sora exalted while thrusting his palm passionately and winding the air.
All the while, he received Steph and Shiro’s amazed——no, relieved, gazes upon himself.
“If it’s my unworthy silly wisdom, then I will share it as much as you want and as such, come on, hurry up and let me hear in details about it please, oh my soul mate——!!”
But, Sora’s voice continued without caring while he shouted overly pretending to be some kind of actor——
…………*silence*
His answer was only a calm silence——no.
There was only the sound of the disk spinning and the darkness, which already became something usual after being repeated 61 times in a row.
The running cart had crossed the 61st square and, before they noticed it, they reached the edge of the square.
“~~~Now, it’s ‘Event Load’!? It’s aiming too much for the KOTY[20] right!!!”
Sora was breathing coarsely through his nose while growling at the [Square Movement(Loading)] that ignored the mood and Steph questioned him.
“……More importantly. You haven’t forgotten the next square will be the one with the【Task】, have you?”
“You, don’t make me repeat! I just said that something like that hardly matters, didn’t I!?”
“But, I also just happened to see your prediction getting wrong and having a task written ‘die’, didn’t I!?”
——Sora stopped laughing and ridiculed it as “something trivial.”
Just having one person in charge of being a fool was already good enough, but, they even found out his entire【Task(Fool)】was completely harmless.
No matter what kind of task it may be, it’ll just slow them down by seventy-two hours——In other words.
There’s too much time for him to inquire with more details about the interesting organization known as the “I want to be embraced by Sora-sama” Association——!
And like that, the cart that had Sora, who was in high spirits, and the other two riding, finally reached the square of the outcome of their dice.
——The load——correction, the movement to the [62nd square(destination)] finished——and, in their view was——
…………
……………………Erm, yeah.
“Aha, ahaha~ hey, Gramps? About the details about the girls that want to be embraced by me——”
“……Nii…… Nii……! Look at…… reality——!”
——Reality. What about it, Sora laughed with a troubled face.
Occasionally, Shiro, who was his prided little sister and a genius girl, would say weird things too far from the understanding of commoners.
It was her brother’s duty to strive to understand it, but——He would often be troubled by it…… well then.
——He was riding the cart. Or so he was supposed to. And yet.
He had been thrown out, abruptly, without any context, and, on his own, far up into the sky.
He was literally in the middle of a bungee jump without any rope and was currently falling towards boiling magma.
Could this realistic situation, that’s lacking the letter [re], really be called [reality]?
…………Hahahaha, no wayyyyyyyyyyy——
His thoughts ran idle but the【Task】being read mercilessly hit Sora’s earlobes.
——【The task’s target should instantly be teleported into midair, fall into the magma below, and burn. 】
“Ah, I see♪ Sora, Sora~? As expected, I’m not an idiot~”
The voice continued, right by his side.
“It seems like you can just make it so that they will die if they can’t accomplish it——just like this❤”
Hearing Steph’s words, laughing while taking a walk in the middle of the air alongside him with eyes reflecting no light, Sora smiled.
“Hahaha, you really are an idiot, huh. That way there’s no change to the fact it will become impossible to collect all dice but one, right. By the way Shiro, listen to your brother’s great deduction…… won’t we die with this!?”
“……Welcome back, Nii…… but, soon…… it’ll be, bye bye……”
——It’s said when people are right before their deaths, they’ll see a revolving lantern.
They would search through each and every memories and knowledge, looking for a way to escape the predicament.
It was said to be a phenomenon which caused an aberrant activity——making the brain overcome its limits.
That, it even stopped time.
An enormous amount of memories crossed Sora’s accelerated brain.
The kemonomimi girls hugging Sora saying with a shrill voice they want to be embraced by him.
The geezer——making a muscular pose while making the muscles of his chest move and twitch.
His own smiling face telling the kemonomimi girls fighting over him “you girls, please get along.”
The geezer——enthusiastically showing his muscles while prostrating with his fresh uniform with an afterglow.
The geezer——making the kemonomimi girls curl near his loins while he puffed a cigarette…… *fuu*.
The vermillion-colored cloth waving.
The loincloth swaying with the wind…… red——geezer——
(Are you stupiddddddddddd as if I’ll allow myself to die with such a revolving lantern, you shitty geezerrrrrrr!)
Using those forged memories that I now want to erase, just what the hell did this head of mine planned to save me from?! He was completely confused at the turbulent waves of flashbacks, but.
“……Nii……”
A single drop——just like a drop of water.
It was a faint voice and the hand holding his wasn’t trembling——The eyes looking at him also didn’t think they would die.
——The older brother won’t allow that to happen.
Her eyes were certain of that and with the words that followed.
“……Calm, down……?”
While time was still stopped, his rippling thoughts became calm.
He roared once at his instincts that raised a scream at the heat of magma burning his skin.
——Disappear, you’re in the way, Sora ordered.
He got an answer from the warmth of the hands and the light of eyes
that looked at him.
In order to instantly uncover the [meaning] of this magma——this unnaturally slow death——
Fear is(You are) a hindrance——!!
Sora clenched his teeth hard enough to break them——and, sure enough, he reached the answer in an instant.
——Originally, he would’ve found the one who wrote this【Task】through process of elimination.
And from there, he would list and test the methods for breaking through and uncover the moves he could make——But, there weren’t even a few seconds left until the magma and, if someone could do that in that small amount of time, it would be Shiro not Sora.
As such, Sora undid the string in his own way——In other words, he shouted towards the boiling and bubbling magma which was approaching…… towards the “malice” floating and could be seen there——
“——That’s quite the nerve you got there, huh, you bastard!! I’ll remember it, alright!?”
It was the young boy who once induced them without telling a single lie, used them and, in the end, planned to turn them into food.
The Dhampir——who simply harbored pure harmful intent, deeply etched into his pale face’s smile.
——Having decided on his own it was Plum’s thin smile, he postponed proving his intuition and——
“Give me your panties.”
“————Huh?”
“The panties, I’m talking about your panties!! Panties, shorts, scanties!! Your panties——It’s a panty made of linen with 0.8mm of thickness of a natural light pink dye with a red frill ribbon attached to it, right, isn’t that so!?”
While baring his canines, he asked——no, he simply confirmed it.
——The view was etched deeply into his heart since he did a continuous loop to [remember] it——confirmed everything.
That instant, where Shiro had lowered down Steph’s panties.
The way it stretched, the shape of the wrinkles, the sewing and even the string used to sew it——without a doubt, he remembered it all!!
“You keep up with the sexual harassment even on your death bead…… it’s wonderful how you keep being yourself until the very end——”
“……Nii…… even though, you’re a DT[21]…… why, do you have, such…… knowledge, for identification——”
Amid the sensation of boiling magma burning their skin, with resignation and consternation flying about——he answered inside his heart, it’s because I am a DT.
“Enough——Just shut up and give me those easily burnable panties already——!!”
Sora roared with a face befitting of a crisis but before Steph could even reach, much faster than her——
“Hyaaaaaaah!?”
Shiro noticed Sora’s intention and inserted her hands inside Steph’s skirt, plucking out her panties.
The remaining force made Steph spin around——but, he couldn’t afford to mind it.
Shiro took out some food from the pouch and wrapped Steph’s panties around it——then, she threw it down at the magma right before their eyes with all her strength.
——It seemed so slow, it was abnormal and it was clearly visible inside their view.
After the reason finally caught up to the intuition, Sora lined up the basis for having “decided that by himself.”
——Why did it have to be Steph’s panties?
——That’s because it would be bad if it wasn’t something that “burned” faster than they were falling.
This【Task】made the target of the task get teleported to midair, and inevitably, fall——but.
But, that sentence didn’t restrict “what had to fall into the magma and burn” ——!
At the same time the panties touched the magma——no, before it even touched it.
The fibers made of thin linen got engulfed by the heat raised from the magma’s surface, which easily surpasses a thousand degrees Celsius.
*pow*——and in the instant that a small fire lighted on the panties (packing a meat) ——
——【The task has been accomplished. 】
The magma disappeared along with the echoing of that voice, and, in its place, the watery surface of a lake appeared, where the three of them fell.
While he was sinking in the water, Sora laughed ferociously at the last basis——Plum’s intention.
——The degree of freedom for this【Task】rule, contrary to the words, was incredibly low.
Designations only one can complete are invalid, so what will happen if one were to write it in a way one would only steal while not having any stolen?
As long as one’s trying to win, they cannot write anything besides those stopping others for seventy-two hours.
But——what if “you’re not trying to win.”
They would give【Tasks】which, when noticed, anyone can instantly accomplish——so, there’s only two possible intents behind it.
So, did he fool around like always and ended up messing up, or would it be——
(I won’t wait for seventy-two hours, so please just hurry up and steal my dice…… or something like that?)
Right——while making face like it was saying [Or else you’ll die~] while adding a heart mark to it.
That Plum surely must’ve written those tasks while making that annoyingly thin smile on his pale face, Sora smiled bitterly.
——Just him. Just for Plum alone, having the dice stolen from him was more convenient——
“——Puhaa! Haa…… haa…… are…… are we saved!?”
Hitting the water, Steph asked while peeking from above the water’s surface.
But, Sora grinned at the voice he could only hear faintly and answered inside his mind.
——[NO.]
ababababbababababegobobobobabagah——!!
The bubbles surging violently on the water’s surface were saying things beyond translation.
“D-Don’t bother with me! Please, at least save my little sister, Shiro!!”
“……Shiro…… until the very end, wants…… to die, together…… with Nii……”
Those two were the strongest when it’s about games and the weakest when it’s about anything else.
Their lives were thinner than Japanese paper, as if they were the embodiment of [fragility].
But, they were steadily sinking towards the bottom of the lake, as if they were, literally, heavier than a hammer……
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
“——Shiro, I promise…… I won’t run away from reality anymore. That’s why……”
“……*nods*…… yeah…… Nii, Shiro, too…… won’t, ever, run away again……”
The two had sunk, but, barely got salvaged thanks to Steph’s desperate salvaging operation.
Hugging each other and filling their drenched faces with tears, they firmly pledged to stand against reality together.
——Let’s learn to swim.
“Now, Sora! What kind of repetitive talk you’ll distort saying I got it wrong!?”
While being completely drenched, her breathing disturbed by weariness and exhaustion, Steph suddenly stood up and shouted.
She pulled up not only the drowning Sora and Shiro, but, even the sunken luggage at the bottom of the lake——
Her amazing lung capacity and inexhaustible stamina that still let her shout raised even a sense of respect for her.
——But, if respect recovered stamina, then, they wouldn’t be having such a hard time.
“……No, it’s fine like this…… it’s just like I expected——”
“Are you really saying that you expected yourself to spit out water from your mouth like a fountain while trembling together with your litter sister, raising a crying voice!? Was it also within your expectations to turn into an artificial fishing reef decorating the bottom of the lake!? You really think about nature, right~!?”
…… Maybe she really snapped this time, her criticism is many times sharper than usual. But. Sora grinned——and, while lyi
ng on his back and spitting out more water, he laughed.
“Why would you create a fishing reef in a freshwater lake…… if it’s about protecting nature then you should create it in the ocean——”
“It’s-not-about-thaaaaaat!! How is there anything ‘expected’ about this disastrous situation!!”
Steph firmly pointed that out so Sora thought about her so-called “disastrous situation.”
——He was lying on his back, Shiro was lying on top of him and Steph was screaming.
The rucksack had sunk in the lake as they had before——but that, too, got pulled up by Steph.
Most of the contents should be safe.
It was a waxed water-proof bag(rucksack) since he assumed from the very start “this kind of thing” would happen.
Their smartphones, tablets, and the like, too, were all water-proofed products that could be used inside the bath.
And, since they accomplished the【Task】——the dice floating around the three’s chests increased one by one.
——That’s all of the current situation called “disastrous.” I wonder, what’s wrong about it——
“They are killing each other, aren’t they…… just which mouth was saying that it’s within expectations……!”
Steph said so with a regretful voice, as if blaming him, although Sora noticed it a little late.
Sora said they wouldn’t end up killing each other——and yet.
She called it “disastrous” ——“this” situation where both Ino and Plum had nearly killed them.
“……. Hmm, even if you ask me ‘which mouth,’ unfortunately, I only have one mouth, so……”
Sora murmured so and stood up and turned to Steph, who was glaring at him accusingly.
He said it as carefree as always——but.
“Regardless if I spit out water or fish from this mouth, I’ll say it as many times as necessary——it’s all within my expectations.”
“………………!”
He declared with a gaze that didn’t waver in the slightest.
Steph faltered involuntarily but Sora continued, completely aloof, while squeezing his wet shirt.
