by Yuu Kamiya
“My tail sucks up the water and gets all heavy, please… It’s a pain in the ass, please.”
“Hff, enough is quite enough if you ask me. Who came up with this baffling ceremony of bathing in the sea?”
“O Holy Shrine Maiden, I apologize. I should not have allowed you to become involved in this farce of King Sora’s.”
Despite the troupe’s sudden transformation, not unlike actors having just finished a performance, there was one member—
“…Huh? Wh-what?”
—unable to follow. Steph, watching dazedly, stood alone in the sea.
“—Mm? What are you doing, Steph? We got the footage. It’s fine. You can come out now.”
Sora said this while disabling his phone and tablet, which were mounted on beachside trees.
“…Huh? What? What do you mean?”
“—Mm? Huh, you mean you were actually enjoying it for real?”
Having moved into the shade to towel themselves off, everyone looked confused.
“…Uhh, sorry. Let’s see now, Steph… The truth is…”
Sora, apparently certain she had been aware the whole time, spoke as if recluctant to say it.
“…No one here actually likes the beach…”
—…Mm-hmm… A large, deep collective nod from the group. The Shrine Maiden, who seemed the most uncomfortable of all of them, spoke as she groomed her golden fur.
“I gave this ‘trope’ Mr. Sora spoke of a whirl…but it’s still a mystery to me… With all this sand in my tail… How do you reckon I shall get this out?”
“Lord Shiro—it is time!”
Jibril, her eyes flashing, handed something to Shiro.
—Props was the response indicated by Shiro’s thumb, her eyes gleaming the same.
“…Shrine, Maiden…you should, try…this brush, and this, shampoo.”
“Oh, is that so? Well, let’s give it a try, then.”
“…Fluffy, fluffy…hee-hee…”
Shiro, having deftly gained an excuse to fulfill her desires, smiled darkly as she buried her face in the Shrine Maiden’s golden tail. And, before you knew it, Sora was at it, too, with the same contents in his hands.
“Yayyy-yooo, now I’m gonna do Izuna’s—”
But Ino towered in the young man’s path. Looks were exchanged in an instant—two men face-to-face. “I shall tend to Izuna. Here, here, Izuna, this way.”
“…Gramps, why don’t you take care of your own damn tail?”
“To be groomed by you, Sir, would defile Izuna. Why do you not do something about that meager body of your own?”
But, paying no attention to these two, Izuna toddled straight in front of Ino, and plopped down.
“Get this shit done, please.”
“…………………………………………”
“…Old fart, that thing you’re doing with your face makes me want to kill you without you saying anything. Is that some kind of special Werebeast power?”
In response to Ino’s expression, which seemed moments away from audibly echoing with a sound like owwnnnned, a vein bulged on Sora’s forehead.
…Fshh, a wave splashed over Steph’s legs.
—It seemed the time when anyone had been aware of her had come and gone…
—The sun was creeping below the horizon.
“…Hee-hee, it’s so beautiful…hee-hee-hee…”
Sitting with her arms around her knees on the beach, Steph, having apparently fled into her own little world…was smiling.
—Then suddenly Sora spoke.
“I’m bored.”
At this one phrase, the gazes of all collected on Sora.
“Hng, only bastards quit while they’re ahead, please.”
Izuna expressed her discontentment at Sora’s words; Sora, who had been whiling away all this time until sunset with Izuna and his DSP, shogi, tic-tac-toe, and other distractions that made one question why they’d bothered to come to the beach in the first place.
“Uhh, no, I didn’t mean I’m bored of playing games with you.”
Rising, Sora addressed the nearby crate.
“Hey, Plum, where’s your welcome boat?”
““Ah!””
Voices rose at this reminder of their original purpose, which almost everyone had forgotten, and Plum meekly poked her face out of the crate. Plum—who must have been working her magic the whole time judging from her face, which was so exhausted as to harken back to their first meeting—answered:
“Nghh, I—I told youuu, it’s coming around when the date changes, didn’t I…?”
“But, I mean, my DSP and tablet are practically outta batteries. I’m pretty much done here.”
“That’s why I told you we didn’t need to come so earlyyy…”
Nghh… Plum whined, her exhaustion clouded with dissatisfaction.
“Nooo, I’m bored. I wanna go now. Otherwise I’m going home,” Sora said like a spoiled child.
“How can you be so childiiish…?”
Sora ignored the petulant Plum and exchanged glances with the Shrine Maiden and Shiro. The Shrine Maiden—who since getting out of the water had been thoroughly fluffed up in the shade by Shiro—and Shiro, who had been doing the fluffing.
—Both nodded subtly and muttered together.
“Right you are, lad…I must say this is getting tiresome.”
“…Mm…I’m…tired, too…”
“Whaa… You, too? How can you be so…?”
Ignoring Plum, who seemed consumed by sorrow, Sora opened his mouth.
“Jibril.”
“I am here.” Jibril materialized from the void at the first mention of her name.
“Have you pinned down the location?”
“Yes, Master. I believe that the location you and Lord Shiro calculated is accurate.”
—Calculated? Sora took out his tablet for Plum, who didn’t seem to understand what this was about. On the map of the plots of neighboring areas of the Eastern Union was displayed a rough estimate of the position of the city, which Shiro had traced back from such factors as the slight amount of trade conducted by Oceand. Looking over to the real-world position—beyond the horizon—Sora spoke.
“All right, I guess we’re ready—do it.”
“Your wish is my command!”
At Sora’s words, loosening her expression into a joy she could not conceal, Jibril knelt and executed his order.
“Huh, wh-what are you going to dooo…?”
Plum nervously voiced the same question Ino wanted to ask. Ino’s Werebeast intuition was blaring an alarm. Identify it. As circumstances require, stop it. These bastards are up to no good. So Ino glanced at the Shrine Maiden. Seeing her slowly nod, No problem, he sighed in relief. But then—at the Shrine Maiden’s snide expression adding, But watch out, Ino went pale. Sora lifted Shiro and offhandedly announced:
“We’re bustin’ in. Everyone get back.”
As the two edged away from the beach, Jibril turned to Sora and Shiro.
“—Master, are you certain it’s all right?” As if unable to wait, yet, for form’s sake, squirming, she sought final confirmation.
“Sure. In any case, it’s gonna be constrained by the Ten Covenants, right?”
The First of the Ten Covenants.
—In this world, all force of arms and bodily injury are forbidden.
“Any action that’s considered to be malicious or an exercise of force of arms is canceled by the binding power of the Covenants—looked at the other way, actions without malice are not canceled. Which means that, if an action is executed, that means ‘Lord Tet’ himself has put down his seal of approval saying it doesn’t violate anyone’s rights—so.”
With these words, Sora raised his thumb with a bold smile.
“Do what you can do for the win.”
At this reply, a solemn bow as if receiving the word of heaven. But, contrastingly, making a sloppy smile, Jibril stood.
“Eh-heh, eh-heh-heh-hehh, how many years has
it been? Geh-heh-hehh, I cannot waiiit…”
As Jibril whispered with a drunken expression, her surroundings suddenly distorted. Clearly light—no, space—seemed to wrench and warp.
—The Ten Covenants. This was a world in which the exercise of force of arms and bodily injury was forbidden by absolutely binding Covenants. Ino supposedly understood it more than well enough, yet the scene made his skin crawl.
“Come now, all fall back!” came the calm yet sharp voice of the Shrine Maiden. At this brief command, without connection to their consciousness, all the Werebeasts there reflexively jumped far away.
“…Huh? What is going on?” Steph was finally brought back to the real world by the Shrine Maiden’s shout.
She realized that she was the only one still so close to the sea.
Thunk—space quivered with a sound outside the audible range. Warped farther as even the sand on the beach was made to forget about gravity and float into the air. Bending and twisting, space converged in Jibril’s hand. The only one there who could see magic—spirits—Plum. Yet she watched utterly at a loss as to what Jibril was trying to do. If it was as Sora had been told before…it was only natural. What Jibril was doing—was squeezing all the spirits out of their surroundings. If there were no spirits to see, nothing could be seen. It was much like a black hole. And—in Jibril’s palm, the wrung-out spirits were compacted, compressed, condensed, contracted, concentrated, and at last began emitting light. It shone clearly even to the eyes of Sora and Shiro, Immanities incapable of seeing spirits. In Jibril’s right hand, a column of light that seemed to whirl began to form. Sora and Shiro were fundamentally unable to grasp or detect the likes of magic or spirits—and yet. The halo above Jibril’s head was spinning so fast it was already just a blur. There was only one thing this could mean—
“…Hey, uh, y-you can’t be seriouuus! Wh-whaa, you meaaan—?!”
Finally grasping the situation, Plum scrambled to take cover, but, unable to escape from her crate, she just screamed. Yes, there was only one thing this spectacle could mean. It was something the likes of which, at the very least, Sora and Shiro had never seen. Jibril was about to exercise magic on a level that defied conventional expectations.
Jibril’s right hand gripped it firmly, though it was too amorphous to be called a sword or spear. And—slowly raising it above her head—she smiled sunnily.
“Very well, Master.
“I shall proceed—with about five percent of my full power. ”
At a speed that left these words far behind, Jibril’s right arm swung down. That was as much as Sora and Shiro were able to see. With a lag like that between the sight of distant lightning and the sound of the following thunder, a few moments later roared a boom that shook the earth as waves reached almost to the heavens and—almost like some kind of joke—the sea parted. Then—
“Eeyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Aaaaaauuuuuuuuughhhh—”
In the wake of the tempestuous impact, Steph—as well as Plum, still in her crate—rolled to Shiro’s and Sora’s feet.
—That was everything they were able to perceive next.
“Hff… It is such a delight to be able to put forth force.” Jibril bared a huge, refreshed smile. “I can only pray to one day be blessed again with a chance to put forth my all—one hundred percent. ”
But at these words even Sora and Shiro broke into a cold sweat. Even Moses would be incredulous at how cleanly she had parted the sea…and then they remembered that Jibril had once unleashed her full power on Elf, that is, 100 percent, with her “Heavenly Smite.” And, albeit not entirely, they had managed to defend themselves somewhat—
“…Elf…Fiel’s guys are pretty sick.”
“…Nod, nod.”
At Sora’s involuntary acknowledgment of their crew currently in absentia, Shiro nodded.
Jibril, though, was unable to know what lay in their hearts. “With this I have succeeded in seeing the city of Siren. We may shift there at any time.”
…The Werebeasts’ senses approached physical limits, but of course, Ino and Izuna and even the Shrine Maiden were incapable of seeing anything but the horizon. At this point, no one could say a word to Jibril, claiming she’d seen it as if she’d bent light itself with that blow of hers.
—Sora looked around at the wide berth that had been cleared around the Flügel.
“’Kay, guys, let’s go. Grab onto Jibril.”
The appalled Shrine Maiden returned gingerly to the beach with the Werebeasts.
“I thought myself aware of it…but, seen in the flesh, that is one cruel joke.”
“…Nghhh… If you can help it, you really shouldn’t get involved with Flügel at allll…” Crawling out of her broken crate, Plum concurred. Fortunately for her, the sun had already set.
Ino suddenly raised his voice in a panic. “Sir! Will you please not subject our Holy Shrine Maiden to that sound!”
In apparent terror of the sound from the distortion of space in a long-distance shift, Ino was roaring.
“Oh, yeah. Jibril.”
“Yes, I understand the situation. With that—everyone please take hold…oh, please, Dora, if you’ll just interrupt your nap for a moment and come here.”
“…Uh, huh? What’s going—wh-what is this?! The sea has parteeeed?!”
Everyone gathered around Jibril, ignoring Steph and her lonely shrieking.
“And now we shall shift to the metropolis of Siren—Oceand.”
Once more, Jibril’s wings started to glow, and again her halo increased its RPM.
“The distance is 378.23 kilometers; however, the parted sea will return any second now.”
As if responding to her words, the sea closed up with a roar.
“Therefore, it is surmised that Oceand lacks air.”
“Oh, d-don’t worryyy; I’ve got a spell for breathing—”
But, whether she didn’t hear Plum’s voice or simply ignored it—
“Therefore—I will shift us along with all the air in a two-hundred-meter radius!”
“—Hungh?”
“Fall back!”
The Shrine Maiden’s voice rang out once more. With it, the Werebeasts who had come with her to the beach—excluding Ino and Izuna—took a step away.
—That moment. They vanished, leaving behind the high-frequency crack of splitting air.
““Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!””
And a low-pressure field imploded with the rebound of the air punched out wholesale. It stirred up a little cyclone, forcing the remaining Werebeast girls to cling to a tree as they rode out the wind—but all who might have witnessed this sight…were gone.
CHAPTER 3
CHARMER
—Oceand…the ocean-floor metropolis where Siren and Dhampir lived in symbiosis. An insular nation built on local production for local consumption, with almost no trade with other countries. Since it was at the bottom of the sea, it was impossible to visit by any sensible means. However, here was a group who had come by means that were not sensible. Jibril’s shift after parting the sea had brought them to a vista overlooking all of Oceand. At a depth of about two hundred meters, when the seawater was displaced and then replaced—
“Well, that’s how it goes, eh…”
The Shrine Maiden, groaning behind Sora, turned beyond the air membrane created by Jibril. There, the gravel and stones of the ocean floor swirled as if in a blender, raging madly…but however violent Jibril’s magic might have been, the Covenants disallowed her from exercising force of arms. If she was able to execute it, it meant that it did not imply harm to anyone else, supposedly…
“Are you certain this isn’t directly attacking the city or hitting anyone?”
“Y-yeah, the Ten Covenants are absolute. It’s fine. I think. Probably.”
Sora—thus reassured as the tide calmed and the gravel settled, the seawater clearing—said, “—Huhh, this is pretty cool.”
“…Pretty…”
At the majesty of the cit
y spread below, Sora and Shiro each shared their thoughts. In contrast to Sora’s fairy-tale, pastoral image, it was actually a rather imposing metropolis. Countless structures stood in rows, apparently built of stacks of seafloor stone. The stone walls, glistening the color of pearl, were tiled with thin slices of coral and shells, creating a brilliant display of color. Perhaps utilizing the buoyancy of the water, there stood complex arches surely impossible to build on land, as well as buildings conspicuously shaped like inverted cones—and then Sora thought.
“…Hm? Why isn’t everything blue?”
Only the blue light of the sun was supposed to penetrate to the ocean floor, but this question was answered by Shiro.
“…Brother, it must be…that.”
What Shiro pointed to, floating through the sea, were countless fluorescent jellyfish and seaweed clumps—“streetlamps” utilizing natural bioluminescence.
—Oh, so the city illuminated itself.
“What the hell? Everyone keeps saying they’re idiots, but this is a pretty nice city.”
“…Ha-ha, thank youuu…,” said Plum with a bitter smile full of resignation and self-deprecation. “We’re the ones who built and manage it, you knowww…ah-ha-ha…”
…Unable to find words, Sora turned his gaze behind him. Jibril, Izuna, and Steph all looked around curiously, and the Shrine Maiden seemed wholly relaxed. And then there was—
“King Sora, Sir… Just, what…is the meaning of this…?
Apparently having had his ears screwed up by the shift after all, Ino uttered his query through frequent fits of slight convulsing.
“Just like you asked, seems like Izuna and the Shrine Maiden are fine. You better tell Jibril thanks, you know?”
“…Ahh, that’s right as rain, I suppose. But would you still allow me a word?”
Looking at Sora, Shiro, and Jibril one by one, the Shrine Maiden gave a deep, deep sigh. “—Could you lot use at least a little common sense…”
“Huh?”
“…What’s, your…prob-lem?”
“Hmm, offshoot of the dog family of the cat order, wherein lies your objection?”
