TNG Vol. 23 Chapter 4 Part 5

At daybreak, Shin’s party descended the stairs leading to the next area.

They spun the slot and moved on. Perhaps they’d spent all their bad luck yesterday, every debuff that came up was trivial for combat. An auspicious start.

At the bottom of the stairs stood a door emblazoned with a golden rabbit: the gate to the final area.

“What do you think we’ll get for the final stretch?”

Shin sounded Milt out.

“Considering how high-level the bosses have been… it’s probably that one, right?”

“Figures. Though she herself said the rest is up to luck.”

The final area’s boss was random too. Just because the previous floors had been high-level didn’t guarantee the last one would be. There were reports of the finale turning out to be an utter pushover.

Even so, neither of them believed that would happen here.

“Can you predict it?” Retoneka asked.

“There’s a pattern where Full Vegas shows up,” Shin replied. “A rare boss.”

Beating her doubled the acquisition rewards.

Besides, she had practically invited them to this dungeon. It wouldn’t be strange if she decided to close the curtain herself.

“No point overthinking it. Let’s go.”

They’d know once they stepped in. With nothing more to discuss, Shin opened the final area’s door.

What met their eyes at once was a golden pedestal, and seated upon it, just as expected, was Full Vegas.

“You made it. I’m delighted. As for drawing me here… I wonder if your luck is good, or bad.”

“You didn’t rig it?”

“I’m not that tacky. I only intervened once. I’m here because you drew me in.”

Full Vegas rose from the pedestal and strode forward. Her figure grew hazy; a mist billowed up.

From within it emerged an enormous furball, one that towered five mels high.

Shin and Milt both let out bewildered voices.

“Hold on, that’s not the size I know.”

“Could this be that ‘serious mode’ I heard rumors about?”

The furball wriggled. A small—relative to the rest—tail popped out, and long ears stood proud toward the sky.

She turned, peering down with a winsome face and round, beady eyes.

If you ignored the sheer, preposterous scale of her body, she was downright adorable.

“You not only drew me, but also rolled this version of me, your luck is truly awful. Or is it that you don’t want the reward?”

Shimmering fur rippled as Full Vegas turned her gaze to the party.

(Is she looking at Yuzuha?)

Shin realized the towering stare wasn’t aimed at him.

Coupled with that line about a “reward,” it wasn’t hard to guess who she meant.

Maybe Yuzuha knew something Full Vegas knew, and had reasons not to speak.

Even so, Shin said it plainly:

“Of course we want it.”

He’d noticed Yuzuha had been unusually quiet in this dungeon… and sluggish in battle. Yuzuha had to know he’d noticed, yet she’d said nothing.

Even if Shin pressed her, she probably wouldn’t talk; he knew her that well by now.

But Full Vegas wasn’t the sort to toss out meaningless hints.

He had a hunch: Yuzuha was trying to shoulder the risk alone.

“In that case, there’s only one thing to do. Try and defeat me.”

The very next instant, the air split.

No, that was merely how the pressure felt.

It was a declaration: the being before them was a Divine Beast.

Everyone raised their weapons. They were about to rush Full Vegas when—

“Sorry about this.”

A golden flash tore the sky.

The strike wasn’t aimed at him; Shin flicked a glance to his allies and saw Retoneka and Tiera vanish.

“Retoneka’s just going to get in the way. And it’s too early for Tiera to be on this stage.”

Her tone was bright and cheerful as before, which only made it terrifying now.

Kagerou suddenly, without Tiera on his back, faltered. Despite being a fellow Divine Beast, Full Vegas had culled Tiera with a flick of her claw without provoking Kagerou’s instincts at all.

This was the power of a Divine Beast showing her true strength in her own domain.

—“Full Vegas Level 1000.”

【Analyze】 obligingly displayed her level.

“You showed me that on purpose?”

Given Shin’s current stats, he shouldn’t have been able to see it. The only explanation was that she wanted it known.

“GGGAAAAAAAHHH!!”

Kagerou returned to his true form, lightning blasting from every inch of his body as he hurled himself at Full Vegas.

“(We go!)”

Shin shouted to Schnee and Milt via 【Mind Chat】 and slid in under 【Hiding】. With his current debuffs, a frontal assault was suicide.

Kagerou, now enlarged, slammed into Full Vegas, fangs bared for her throat.

Full Vegas didn’t evade.

Massive bodies collided; the floor shook.

Kagerou’s claws sank into her flank and his jaws clamped on her neck.

He meant to rip straight through, Shin could feel the fury pouring off him.

“…Childish.”

A dull shock rippled the air: boom.

There was a heavy thud near Kagerou’s belly, and the giant wolf was flung skyward like a toy.

“The boy needs a bit more experience.”

Three golden flashes, twice over, crossing through the air.

Kagerou tumbled across the ground; his right foreleg severed, his face and torso carved halfway through. After a brief delay, his form winked out.

(…Overwhelming.)

This was Full Vegas on a different plane from the strength Shin knew.

It was the same chill that had raced through him when he first faced a complete Element Tail.

Unwinnable.

He knew it before blades met, the gulf in power was too absolute.

“Even so—!”

Shin sprinted at Full Vegas.

Debuffs or not, he had no intention of yielding.

“I won’t be dead weight either!”

Milt charged with 『Ordgand』 raised.

Full Vegas waited for them in silence.

Milt struck first,『Ordgand』 flared with a brilliant blue afterglow.

“I won’t slow everyone down!”

Trailing a meteoric radiance, 『Ordgand』 crashed into Full Vegas’s torso.

Milt unleashed her very best:

—Axe martial skill 【Shiden – Starshatter】.

It had no special modifier against Full Vegas, it was simply her strongest blow.

“Here I come!”

A half-beat later, Shin leapt.

He launched himself off the ground, layering every buff he could: body reinforcement, slashing enhancement, everything.

What he released was a pinnacle technique, martial mastery itself:

—Sword martial skill 【Shiden – God Hewer】.

It grew stronger against Divine Beasts and divinity-aligned foes.

『True Moon』 darkened, its edge swelling into a blade of shadow, swathed in a violet aura.

Full Vegas watched the falling edge.

With Milt’s 【Starshatter】 nudging her back a pace, she raised her right arm between herself and the slash.

“Reckless, is it?”

Shin muttered, and Full Vegas returned a short reply.

“Not entirely.”

The skill windows winked out, 『Ordgand』’s glow faded, and the dark blade shattered.

Full Vegas’s pelt hung in a wide sheared swath across her torso; a single line of blood traced her lifted arm.

“Now then, let’s fight for real.”

Her claws lit with golden light. Two more slashes, in twin arcs.

When the lingering trails faded, Shin and Milt were nowhere to be seen.

“So, you’re not going to fight?”

Full Vegas addressed the one who remained: Schnee.

“No. But first, there’s something I need to ask. Here, at least, we won’t be interrupted.”

『Blue Moon』 flashed as it caught the light.

Schnee’s eyes were on Yuzuha, who hadn’t moved throughout the battle.

“May I have a little time?”

“Of course.”

Schnee flicked a glance at Full Vegas. Though her face stayed turned to Yuzuha, Full Vegas only nodded, unconcerned. She’d said from the start she wanted this information passed along; there was no reason to refuse.

“Yuzuha, what are you hiding?”

“K-Kuu…”

“Playing the little fox won’t help you.”

Yuzuha tried to look away and wriggle out of it; Schnee, exasperated, called her on it. Yuzuha had to know it was a useless dodge.

“I don’t want to say.”

“Is it something that would trouble Shin that much?”

“…!”

Yuzuha’s ears pricked straight up. That reaction said enough.

“Haaah… when it’s Shin, you can’t keep a secret. You’ve always had uncanny instincts where he’s concerned.”

Yuzuha shifted from fox to human.

A beauty that would enchant any gender, silver hair down to her waist, curves that outstripped even Schnee’s; her shrine-maiden garb, a gift from Shin interlaced with her own power, gleamed faintly.

Only one tail swayed at her hip; she was clearly keeping the rest hidden. The ripple of power that leaked out at the moment of change told Schnee that Yuzuha had already optimized the powers she’d regained.

“It seems you’ve gotten nearly all your strength back.”

“Thanks to you. Not all, but I’ve remembered a lot, about that time, about myself. And because of that, there’s something I have to keep hidden.”

“That ‘reward’ she mentioned, then?”

Schnee turned to Full Vegas; Full Vegas nodded: correct.

“So—what is it you must hide? I’ll say this first: in this situation, ‘I don’t want to talk’ is not an option. I’m not as gentle as Shin.”

“I know. I don’t intend to fight you. And I’m sure Shin’s already noticed I’m hiding something.”

Yuzuha smiled, eyes dipping to the 『Blue Moon』 in Schnee’s hand. She knew exactly what Schnee would do if anything threatened Shin.

If nothing else, this would be good practice for “just in case.”

The air between them crackled.

Full Vegas only watched. Even as the “boss,” she chose whether to fight.

“Let me start with this: what I’m hiding won’t harm Shin. For now.”

Schnee’s gaze sharpened.

“An ominous way to put it. ‘For now’—so there could be harm later?”

“If you hear me out and do nothing, it need never become harm. I would have preferred to leave it at that, but that rabbit over there just had to meddle…”

Now Yuzuha’s eyes turned flinty. Full Vegas, receiving the glare, looked utterly unbothered.

“Hardly unfair, is it? I didn’t watch you for long, but that boy’s the type who’d regret not knowing.”

With Yuzuha unwilling and Full Vegas unable to say more, Schnee’s voice took on an edge.

“Then, why?”

Yuzuha let out a small, resigned breath and spoke.

“In simple terms: when Shin goes back to his world, there’s about a fifty-fifty chance I’ll disappear.”

The pressure Schnee was projecting dissipated as she failed to process the words. She frowned, thinking.

“…What do you mean? You’re under contract with Shin. Wouldn’t the return be done via that bond?”

“And who can prove that’s guaranteed?”

That silenced Schnee. There’d been a time when she herself had felt her thread to Shin was thin, and she’d envied Yuzuha’s clear connection.

“The contract does help when he crosses over. But in the face of world-crossing—a feat of a different order—it’s no more than a slender rope. You don’t know where it might snap. It’s an unreliable lifeline.”

A bond strong enough in this world became fragile at the boundary of another. Still, how was that harmful to Shin? Schnee wondered.

“I understand the link between you and Shin. Is that what might harm him?”

“The contract itself won’t hurt him. If the bond snaps in transit, I’ll simply fail to reach the other side and vanish. The problem is what happens if Shin knows and tries to do something.”

“He will act, without question. Where’s the harm in that?”

“To make sure I get there, we’d have to make our bond stronger and deeper. And I don’t know what effect that would have on Shin’s body.”

A normal contract wouldn’t do that; it would settle into the typical circle of mutual empowerment between summoner and familiar. But in truth, Shin and Yuzuha’s pact wasn’t a proper one.

You weren’t supposed to contract “untamable” monsters in the game era, least of all a top-tier Divine Beast, an Element Tail. It was an aberration born from Shin’s abilities, the Origin power he’d taken in, and Yuzuha’s weakened state; the bond formed like a normal contract… or perhaps it’d be truer to say it forced itself into place.

By all rights, the contract should have failed, so Yuzuha said.

“If the bond deepens, the power circulating between summoner and familiar grows stronger. But my power isn’t like a normal monster’s. If that circulation swells, I don’t know what it’ll do to Shin’s body. Part of why contracts couldn’t be made before ‘Dusk of Majesty’ was the system itself; part was a kind of instinctive warning that contracting was dangerous for people over there. If this world alone were at stake, I wouldn’t have hidden it. But…”

Shin’s psyche was now deeply rooted in the powers of this world. If more was mixed in, he might be fine now but become abnormal after returning.

On the other side, Shin’s body had no relationship with the supernatural: no strength to crush boulders one-handed, no toughness to shrug off a dragon’s punch, no magic or skills.

“For now it’s okay. But if we strengthen the bond like this, once he returns, Shin might become something other than human. That’s the ‘harm’ I meant.”

To save herself, she might make the one she cherished suffer; that fear had kept Yuzuha silent.

“I see. I have a lot to say… but for now, I accept it.”

Hearing her reasons, Schnee thought that in Yuzuha’s place she might have done the same.

Even so, could she accept not being at Shin’s side? The answer was no.

“Yuzuha, two answers. First: how certain is this information? As you yourself said, can you guarantee it’s not a mistake?”

If a contract that shouldn’t exist was the cause, how certain could any side effects be? Schnee doubted absolutes here.

“It’s certain. It comes from my former self’s knowledge, and from the Origin knowledge that flowed into me through the contract with Shin. Origin interfered across worlds; the memory of that tells me how this plays out.”

“Origin’s knowledge… you have that?”

“I’m a monster, downstream of Origin. So the knowledge flowed as well. You carry Origin’s power too, but your ‘spec’ as a living being is different; for you it’s just stat growth and the like. That said, I only became fully aware of this when you and Shin spent a night together. And no, before you ask, I didn’t peek.”

“—!”

Schnee felt the heat in her cheeks at the sudden mention of that night, but forced herself back to the point.

“Ahem. I follow, regarding the information. The other question: can you give up?”

Schnee’s voice and eyes were grave.

Dress it up how you like, the crux was there. If you could step away to spare him, then you could have slipped off without a word.

“Th-That…”

If her resolve were set, she would have answered instantly. Instead, Yuzuha only turned away.

“You’ve treasured your bond with Shin more than anyone. I don’t believe you can give up being at his side.”

“Exactly! The girl just can’t cut the knot when it matters.”

Full Vegas, until now a quiet spectator, chimed in.

Since developing a stronger selfhood through Origin’s influence, she’d often exchanged “shared data” from the game era with Yuzuha. Unlike a support character like Schnee, Full Vegas had been autonomous as a monster, contact happened off-screen.

𑁋

Even if they’d rarely surfaced as NPCs in those days, those exchanges meant they knew each other’s dispositions well.

“I might saddle him with a burden for my own sake. Demanding a stronger contract isn’t a decision I can make lightly. And it’s not as if I’m guaranteed to disappear.”

“If you wait for that ‘what if’ to happen, it’ll be too late. Of all of us, you’ve known Shin the longest since he came here. If Yuzuha vanished—and if he learned it could have been prevented—don’t tell me you don’t know how deeply that would scar him.”

Schnee’s words held a trace of anger. Shin would never weigh the chance of Yuzuha’s disappearance against the risk to himself and choose himself, Yuzuha knew that.

“I’m scared! What if, because of me, Shin turns into a monster? I don’t know what might happen. Thinking about the worst—of what could happen to him—terrifies me…”

Perhaps swept along by Schnee’s rising emotion, Yuzuha raised her voice as well.

He wouldn’t suddenly transform into a beast, Origin’s knowledge didn’t indicate that. But remaining human in shape while becoming something not-human was well within possibility.

For her sake, he might step off the human path he was meant to walk, and that, Yuzuha feared.

“Even if it came to that, Shin wouldn’t regret it. If you doubt me, ask him yourself.”

“Th-That…”

Seeing her waver, Schnee pressed.

“If you won’t ask, I will. Your secret’s already out; staying silent now is pointless.”

“Uu… f-fine.”

There was no point hiding it anymore. Resigned, Yuzuha promised to tell him once they returned. With ears drooping and shoulders slumped, she looked—despite her mature beauty—like a child scolded by a parent.

“Relentless, aren’t you.”

“Yuzuha is timid, and she was also underestimating Shin a little. This much was necessary.”

Schnee answered Full Vegas’s light laugh with a prim look.

“You really trust that young man.”

“Obviously. He’s the man I love.”

Her expression flipped to radiant certainty.

Even Full Vegas, for all her poise, could only lift her hands in a helpless little shrug at that whiplash turn.

(TNG Vol. 23 END)