Ch.178Chapter 26. Mirror (15)

My memories are jumbled.

Was it because of the mirror? The memories of my past life and current life were all mixed up, making it hard to get my bearings.

But still, it was better than before.

What was happening? I’m pretty sure I had risen into the sky.

I turned my gaze.

No, would it be more accurate to say I looked with different eyes? My senses felt strange. It felt like parts of my body were bound.

When I forcibly turned my gaze, I could see my body tied up in various places.

…My body? This?

“…”

Ah, I see. I had melted into that mass of flesh.

“Kotone!”

Someone called my name.

I turned my gaze.

Someone was holding up a mirror toward me. The white and red clothes were now a mess. They were covered in dirt, and it looked like blood was seeping out from somewhere, as if they had been rolling around.

But the arm holding the mirror didn’t waver.

What reflected in the mirror was a white light. That light that supposedly showed one’s true essence. Ironically, it didn’t show my current appearance.

What was there…

I reached out my hand.

From the mass of flesh, a hand slowly extended. It was indeed a strange sensation. It felt like gradually emerging from inside something soft and mushy, and also like forcibly pulling my body out from places where it was stuck.

The figure reflected in the mirror was—my figure.

Not my past life’s appearance, nor the incomprehensible form of a god, but the appearance of “Kotone Kurosawa.”

I’m not sure why that was supposed to be my true essence.

Was it because that’s how I perceived myself, or because that’s how the people around me perceived me?

However, one thing was certain.

I liked that appearance.

Even though it was a body I hadn’t used for even a year, and in some sense, I was an uninvited guest, I still liked it.

Because that “Kotone Kurosawa” had only good memories.

Like the memories of my family that I never forgot until the end.

My hand touched the mirror.

When my fingertips touched the me beyond the mirror—

Plop, plop.

I heard something breaking.

It felt like the restraints on the bound parts behind me were being released.

My feet touched the ground.

“…Ah.”

Only after my gaze lowered a bit more could I see Kagami, who was obscured by the light coming from the mirror.

“Aah…”

Kagami, seeing me, was crying.

“…”

I looked behind me.

Yuka and Koko were there.

Both of them were looking at me with somewhat dazed expressions.

I wonder how I appeared to them.

My hair was fluttering toward the sky. That black wave, much larger than my body, might have looked like wings from a certain perspective.

It was too grotesque to be considered angel wings.

And, the woman looking down at me from that high place.

I’ve never seen her face before.

Well, I’m not sure if there’s even a part that could be called a face. A form that seemed to have appeared after repeatedly throwing a mass of writhing tentacles randomly until it looked somewhat human.

The part that could be called a “face” did seem to be smiling as it looked down at me.

I wonder how that form appears to others.

A being from beyond space, from the unknown. It couldn’t just be its terrifying appearance.

…

Well, it didn’t matter anymore.

Yuka and Koko are here. Kagami is here too.

And the only one who can stop Nirlas is me.

Then I had to do it.

Tap.

I kicked off with my foot.

My body slowly rose upward. As if gravity didn’t apply to me alone, I could leap toward the sky.

The woman moved too.

Her movements were leisurely.

“How interesting.”

The woman’s voice sounded amused.

Not in a mocking way, but genuinely enjoying it. What was so enjoyable?

Nirlas didn’t seem to want to say anything more.

As my hair moved, Nirlas’s hair moved too. The thin, long hair grabbed and tore at my hair.

Though it looked like hair on the outside, it was actually made of my flesh, so blood naturally flowed.

But the blood wasn’t just ordinary blood.

“Oh.”

Nirlas exclaimed in admiration with a smile.

My blood was burning blue.

The flames that had been enveloping my body had melted into it. I don’t know how that was possible. Was it because of the Sasaki siblings’ blood that had somehow mixed into my body? Or was it because of Kagami’s mirror I had just seen?

The blue flames scattered across the sky flickered like will-o’-the-wisps.

The torn flesh danced in the air and clumped together. When Nirlas’s hair caught fire, she cut it off.

Is that body also an avatar?

Like the blood Nirlas had been manipulating, was it just an illusion of Nirlas’s form reflected in this world? I wasn’t sure.

Nirlas moved smoothly, as if swimming through water.

I could see the part where her “eyes” might be turning toward the ground.

Nirlas wouldn’t need to do that. Just like when my body was a mass of flesh, she could simply create eyes wherever was convenient. No, did she even need something like eyes to see in the first place? Even when she was inside my body, Nirlas could whisper to me and see the world.

Her hair spread out.

Before Nirlas’s tentacles could pierce the people below, I spread my hair like a spider’s web to block them, just as Koko had done to block the dead for us.

That… wasn’t perfect.

Although my body was large, in reality, it was only big enough to be cut up and stored in several refrigerators. I could inflate my body to several times its size, and since the laws of physics didn’t fully apply to me in the conventional way, it wasn’t impossible to block and fight even in that state.

But even so, the difference in our classes was too great.

The avatar of Nirlas, created based on the giant tentacles that Kosuzu had produced, looked much smaller than what had bloomed on the ground earlier, but it seemed that in reality, it could grow even larger than Kosuzu’s exaggerated form.

Simply blocking like an umbrella wasn’t enough.

First, I covered the people below in a dome shape, and then swung my hair to block and cut off what Nirlas was swinging. Thanks to the blue flaming blood, I was able to cut off each one.

But—

I could see something writhing behind Nirlas’s back.

It wasn’t tentacles. It wasn’t something physical like that; the space itself was writhing.

“…”

Well, she is a being on the level of a god, after all.

*

Space being torn or distorted.

It wasn’t like that. Rather, it was as if it lost its form and became mushy.

The space around Nirlas was “melting.”

Is this what the end of the world would be like?

The dissolved “space” slowly flowed down, piling up on the ground like lava.

It wasn’t that fast. But if it kept moving like that, constantly mixing up the ground, what were the chances of this Earth itself disappearing?

I think I understand Kagami’s thoughts a bit.

She probably just wanted to extend our time, hers and ours, which she realized too late.

Because it would take time for the world to end.

Not just near Nirlas, but around the surroundings too, the space itself seemed to be melting little by little.

Like sand flowing down in an hourglass, Nirlas was showing me, as if teaching.

“…”

If that’s the case, I had no choice but to fight.

Numerous blades, all kinds of cutting tools I could think of, rushed toward Nirlas. Some were cut in mid-air and spewed blue flames, while others mixed with the melting space and melted together.

Nirlas also started moving quickly.

Her eyes kept watching me.

Every time Nirlas’s body lashed out, space split. No monsters emerged from there. It just broke, shattered, and melted more.

Everywhere Nirlas moved, the world was breaking.

Silently, Nirlas was announcing the end of this world.

Probably for only one reason.

Just to show me.

To make me struggle.

Yes, struggle.

I was struggling.

I wanted to… save the world.

Not because I was a hero, but simply because I was the only one who could do it right now.

And because I wanted to continue living in that world with the other children.

I turned my gaze. My hair—part of my body—had fused with the melting space. Some parts had disappeared, while others hadn’t yet.

I forcibly moved the parts that hadn’t disappeared and grabbed the melting space itself. The parts where too much of “me” had mixed in seemed to melt but then slowly stopped.

…I see.

My power isn’t just about changing form. Just as Nirlas’s abilities aren’t just about wielding tentacles.

Then, I too—

“Splendid.”

Nirlas whispered.

The part I had grabbed shattered with a clang. It scattered like broken glass pieces and fell down. Those parts that hit the ground and shattered into pieces didn’t return.

“Please, continue to struggle like that.”

At Nirlas’s laughter, I gritted my teeth and moved more violently.

I trampled through space and moved forward. A black trail remained where I had passed. It was my flesh stretching out, unable to keep up with the speed.

I reached out my hand and, just as Nirlas had done, grabbed and shattered space, but it didn’t seem to have much impact on Nirlas. Is it because it’s her own ability?

Nirlas’s tentacle swung and hit my side.

“Oh?”

But I didn’t fly away.

A dog’s head had sprouted there and was biting Nirlas’s tentacle.

I stabbed the tentacle that my hair had grabbed. Like climbing, I moved along the tentacle toward Nirlas. The part that the dog’s head had bitten off, I tore away along with the space and eliminated it.

Nirlas swung me with the tentacle and slammed me to the ground.

“Ugh…!”

For the first time since becoming this body, I felt real pain.

Nirlas slowly descended and approached me.

Click, click, I heard footsteps as if she were wearing heels.

“It seems you have no intention of giving up.”

“…Do you like that?”

Nirlas smiled at my words.

The face made of tentacles was smiling. Strangely, that smile felt benevolent. It wasn’t a maniacal, tearing laughter, nor was it mockery.

As if she was simply enjoying facing me like this, just the two of us.

“At first, I thought you were just an obstacle.”

Nirlas said.

“Indeed, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have found such great interest in this world.”

It was probably interest in me, not the world.

I don’t know what the original work was like, and I never will unless I die in this life and am reborn in that world again, recalling all my memories.

There have been many times when I regretted not knowing. If I had read it to the end, there would have been many moments where I could have benefited.

But not now.

Even without that, I could make friends. I could maintain relationships with people.

The people living here weren’t just characters in a novel; they were people who thought and felt emotions.

And—

If it hadn’t been me, surely an innocent child would have suffered until the end.

I’m glad it was me in that place, not another being.

I got up from my spot.

And I leaped with all my might toward Nirlas.

Bang!

I tried punching, but the tentacles, which didn’t look particularly sturdy at a glance, effortlessly absorbed the force of my punch.

Another of Nirlas’s tentacles pierced my arm that was doing that.

My arm slowly rose, and Nirlas approached.

“I’m enjoying this, but it seems you’re not particularly enjoying it, which is a shame.”

“…Does it seem like I’m not enjoying it?”

“That’s not the expression of someone who is.”

…That’s true.

How could anyone enjoy this situation?

No one enjoys having a huge responsibility placed on their shoulders. Even politicians or those addicted to power might want to run away in a situation like this.

But—well, okay.

To be honest, I’ve enjoyed quite a lot in this world.

I enjoyed school life again.

I felt a bit like I was on an overseas trip, and I enjoyed festivals. I even had a Christmas party, something I never did as a student.

I probably didn’t get along with as many people when I was in high school.

Catching yokai was like that too.

It was scary, painful, and I almost died, but to be honest, there were times when I was a bit excited, feeling like I had entered a manga.

Since it was the world of the work I had seen, I couldn’t dislike it.

So, to be honest, I was grateful for that.

And that’s why I didn’t want to give up.

“…That’s right.”

When I answered, Nirlas smiled slightly.

“So,”

I glared at Nirlas and said,

“I absolutely can’t give up.”

A blade shot out from the side of my neck.

That blade barely grazed my body and pierced the neck of Nirlas, who was holding me tightly.

*

If Nirlas’s eyes don’t actually function as eyes, then perhaps I, with a similar body, might be the same.

I felt it when I created the black dome to protect Yuka, Koko, and Kagami earlier.

“Yuka.”

“Kotone?”

And as I thought, I could hear Yuka’s voice. The body in the form of “Kotone” was outside, but that part of my body wasn’t the “main body.”

After all, isn’t my original form just a huge mass of flesh? Then every part of my body is the main body simultaneously.

“Can I ask you for a favor?”

“Of course.”

Yuka answered immediately.

Yes, Yuka has always been like that. She acted as if she would grant all my requests.

…But because of that, I was also a bit worried.

If possible, I didn’t want to drag the other children into this fight. I hoped I could resolve it on my own.

But it didn’t seem like I could.

Yuka was still gripping her sword tightly.

A sword tempered in the blood of monsters that have consistently threatened humans for hundreds, or perhaps over a thousand years.

There must be a reason why Yuka is the main heroine of the novel.

It’s probably because she can cut down gods with that sword.

I kept thinking.

I never read the end of the novel, but I didn’t think it would have a happy ending. Well, among novels of that era, there were many with provocative content, like the heroine dying midway or being violated.

Did Yuka die? Or perhaps, unexpectedly, the protagonist Sasaki might have died.

But, probably, until the very last moment, that sword played a “key” role.

If it hadn’t, it wouldn’t have appeared as such an important tool.

“I’ll hide you all.”

I told Yuka.

“I’ll get as close to Nirlas as possible.”

“Okay.”

Yuka nodded with a serious expression at my words.

Actually, Yuka seemed to have already understood even with just this much, but I decided to make it a bit clearer. It would be troublesome if there were problems at a crucial moment.

“Stab Nirlas at the right moment.”

“Got it.”

Yuka nodded, seeming to understand my plan.

“…”

After thinking for a moment,

“Koko.”

“Kotone!”

When I called her name, Koko smiled brightly. Even in this situation.

“Help Yuka. She might need strength.”

“Yes!”

Koko nodded enthusiastically.

She’s always been a good kid.

I almost smiled without realizing it, but I held back.

And—

“…Kagami.”

“…”

Kagami, who was hugging the mirror, just raised her head to look at me when I called.

Though I say she looked up, we didn’t make eye contact. All she would see was black hair.

But, at least, her face—I could clearly tell it was very different from usual.

Kagami was crying.

…

I don’t know what to say.

Our relationship wasn’t clear yet.

I had said I would use that title after everything was over, but things weren’t over yet.

However.

“…You were reflecting me in yourself.”

That was the thought that came to mind when I saw that mirror.

Kagami, in the end, was also a neglected “child.”

After giving birth, did she receive proper care? I doubt Kosuzu would have done that. It would be stranger if she hadn’t pressured her to give birth to another being.

When I was just sleeping, she might not have felt that way, but as I started to live and move, her thoughts might have gradually changed.

…Still, I know my environment was much better than Kagami’s.

Well, it wasn’t perfect. Even if it was just keeping a distance out of caution, it was quite helpful to me.

“Later, when we have some time, let’s have a leisurely talk.”

I decided to just say that.

And I hid the three of them in my hair.

*

“—Hahaha!”

Nirlas was laughing as if she had taken a hit.

In her hand, she was holding the sword.

Yuka’s sword had been embedded in Nirlas’s body, but it couldn’t move easily.

Well, that’s to be expected.

She wouldn’t die from just one sword strike. This neck part probably isn’t a vital point either.

“You used your head quite well.”

Nirlas said.

“Yes, I did my best to think.”

Despite Yuka trying her hardest to hold on, the sword eventually came out from the side of Nirlas’s neck.

At a glance, it looked like Nirlas’s neck was half-cut and her head was dangling, but the effect seemed much less than if a human’s neck had been cut like that.

“It’s no use—”

“No, it is useful.”

The sword had only cut off a part of Nirlas’s body.

But at least, that cut scene doesn’t heal immediately. That’s the kind of sword it is.

I reached out and grabbed Yuka’s blade.

“Kotone!?”

Yuka was shocked, but I sliced my palm on the blade, creating a long wound.

This wound won’t heal easily either.

With that wounded hand, I firmly grabbed Nirlas’s cut surface.

And I collapsed the space.