by Nisioisin
She just stood there─limp.
“Y-You…”
I didn’t feel as though I’d taken it all lightly. I thought I’d taken both Episode’s and Kissshot’s words seriously─but as always, I hadn’t understood a thing.
Guillotine Cutter.
Or perhaps, upon hearing that he was “human,” I’d relaxed a little. I’d gone and relaxed. At the very least, he wasn’t monstrously strong or immortal like a vampire or half-vampire─which made me think that the difficulty would be turned down for this fight.
But that was not the case.
He hadn’t hesitated to take a hostage─and that was his way of challenging me to this duel.
“No, I’m entirely to blame here,” Oshino had said, truly apologetically, after coming back to the second floor of the abandoned cram school─as Kissshot was finally waking up─to tell me that Hanekawa had been kidnapped.
His sleazy, frivolous tone was gone.
“It would be one thing if this happened two days ago or before that, but I promised to take missy class president on last night. Still, I didn’t see this coming. It was a problem that Episode threw his cross at her, but that could be said to be a part of combat. The truth is, humans who move in this world, including those in my kind of position, tend not to want to affect regular people…”
“Is that why you were avoiding Hanekawa?”
“I wasn’t really avoiding her, but I didn’t have any intention of meeting her face to face. I thought she and I shouldn’t exchange words─yes, well, even I don’t care to actively bring regular people, not just missy class president but in general, into this. I won’t try to stop them, but I won’t encourage it─that’s my position. But as for Guillotine Cutter…”
He didn’t even seem to hesitate, Oshino said.
“He wasn’t the least bit shy─it was a complete blunder on my part. I’d totally misjudged the opponent’s capabilities and powers.”
“…But how’d he get Hanekawa? He wouldn’t know this place, right?”
“He must have been watching. Probably─the fight with Episode. He may have been watching your fight with Dramaturgy, too─I’d negotiated with the three separately so that sort of thing wouldn’t happen, but he outsmarted me.”
Just like how Hanekawa had been watching from the shadows of the school building.
Just like how Oshino had been watching from somewhere.
Guillotine Cutter, too, had been watching from somewhere.
“The barrier is still effective even if you’re being followed, but it’s not as if missy class president lives here─he could find her if he looked.”
So it was after she’d left the cram school─and the barrier─behind. He’d found her on her way back home. Or had he waited for her in front of it?
“…What should I do?” I asked Oshino. “What is it that I need to do?”
Strangely enough, I wasn’t leveling words of blame. I was more concerned about what to do next.
It was all I could think about.
“Aside from that, the conditions are the same─you and Guillotine Cutter will go at it one on one, and if you win, Guillotine Cutter gives back both of Heartunderblade’s arms. If Guillotine Cutter wins, then you tell him where Heartunderblade is.”
“…What about Hanekawa?”
“She must not count for him. He probably sees her as a tool─no, as a weapon.”
“A weapon…”
Like Dramaturgy’s greatswords.
Like Episode’s cross.
Tsubasa Hanekawa─was Guillotine Cutter’s weapon. He was armed with her.
“Wh-What about the time and place?”
“He chose them. The location will be the same as the other times, Naoetsu Private High School’s athletic field─and since he specifically asked for this location, we could consider that proof that he was watching your other fights─while the time is the night of April 5th.”
“What?”
“In other words, tonight.”
While the request made him seem terribly impatient, it was understandable when you took Guillotine Cutter’s view, the man’s nauseating view.
Hanekawa was a regular human.
Not only that, she wasn’t a washout like me. She was a model student─her walking around at night was enough to worry even someone like me. If she didn’t come home for just one night, her parents would probably contact the police.
Guillotine Cutter wanted to settle things before that happened. It was a rotten way to go about it, but it was in its own way─professional.
He wanted to settle things before an uproar ensued─though I doubted Hanekawa’s safety was guaranteed once the fight was over.
In fact, I didn’t see how he’d let Hanekawa off unscathed now that she knew too much. But there had to be some way for me to take advantage of his wanting to avoid trouble before the fact.
“Exactly,” Oshino said. “Good, Araragi. That’s the spirit.”
“Oshino─”
“…This is my mistake at the end of the day, paper over it as I might. So I’ll give you a little more of a hint this time. A way to rescue missy class president. If you can do it─then you should be able to beat Guillotine Cutter.”
“…Even though he has a hostage?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “First─start by forgetting everything you read about how heroes act in superpowered school action manga. Also, forget about your humanity.”
There was so little time. Not even enough for worrying.
So my only option was to go along with the tactic that Oshino described to me after that preface─I was accepting the risk of coming up with a plan in advance of a fight, in other words, the risk of finding myself confused if it failed─but this time around, I had no choice but to swallow it.
This was already my third fight, but I still wasn’t managing to make good use of my experience.
“Unfortunately, Mister Dramaturgy and young Episode have already left for their home countries─facing your camp alone was a bit much for me. Without a hostage or two, how could I ever balance the situation?” intoned Guillotine Cutter, completely unashamed of his actions.
He smiled with his thin eyes like it was funny.
“Mister Dramaturgy, who had Miss Heartunderblade’s right leg, and young Episode, who had Miss Heartunderblade’s left leg, returned them like honest fools. Chivalry? How bizarre.”
“……”
“In other words, Miss Heartunderblade must have recovered to a reasonable extent. Once-human boy, my dear thrall of Heartunderblade. I can’t allow myself to be injured in a head-to-head fight with you.”
After all, he wasn’t immortal, he proclaimed serenely.
“Wh-What are you going to do to Hanekawa?”
“I’m not going to do anything. As long as you don’t do anything,” Guillotine Cutter shot back. “If you plan on doing something to this girl, then I will do something to her, too─dealing with just-turned humans is nice and easy because hostages work on you as they should. Not so when I’m dealing with pure vampires─or perhaps it’s different when the hostage is a thrall? Would you like to try being a hostage against Miss Heartunderblade?”
“…Cut the crap.”
“I’m being entirely serious.”
Sst.
Guillotine Cutter thrust Hanekawa’s body out toward me like a shield.
Like─a tool. A tool, plain and simple.
“While I may not have superhuman strength like your kind, I have trained quite a bit. A single girl? Killing her would be easy.”
“Ngh…”
I could tell that he was strong. That much was clear from the way he was moving Hanekawa around with one arm. But even more so than his body─he had trained his mind.
He was far too strong mentally.
He wasn’t showing anything like an opening─in as fraught a situation as this.
“By the way, I don’t plan on killing her in a way that would give you enough time to resuscitate her, lik
e what happened with young Episode. I’ll crush her brain with one blow. Even the blood of a thrall of Miss Heartunderblade wouldn’t be able to perfectly restore a destroyed organ as complex as the human brain. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“…And you call yourself human?”
“No. I am God,” Guillotine Cutter declared, placing his free hand on his chest. “Therefore your kind, who would stand against me, should not exist. I swear to God, namely myself─I will not allow your kind to exist.”
“……”
“Though if, like Mister Dramaturgy and young Episode, you choose to join me…I suppose I could let you live.”
“…I’ll pass,” I instinctively replied. Just the invitation was enough to make my skin crawl.
God? Really?
You, sir, are far more the monster than I’ll ever be.
I was sure Mèmè Oshino was watching us, just as he had the other times─but no matter what happened, he wouldn’t be able to interfere. A one-on-one battle: the result of his negotiations.
Hostage-taking─just had to be overlooked.
There was the option of getting Kissshot out here, but it would all be meaningless if Guillotine Cutter defeated her. She still wasn’t at full power.
And even if Kissshot won, we probably wouldn’t be recovering her arms that way─something had to give.
That meant one thing.
I would have to prioritize Hanekawa’s life.
“Is that so.” Guillotine Cutter nodded, hardly sounding disappointed. “To be honest, I never thought you, freshly turned, would defeat Mister Dramaturgy or young Episode. Those two are surprisingly pitiful.”
“Look who’s talking… You waited until the end to show yourself because you wanted to test the waters with those two first, right? When it was finally your turn, you used that information to come up with a plan that might work.”
Oshino had negotiated with the three separately, but they had decided the order: Dramaturgy, Episode, Guillotine Cutter. Dramaturgy had volunteered to lead off, while Episode had shrugged that it was all the same to him.
Guillotine Cutter’s wish had been to─bring up the rear.
“Oh, it wasn’t the result of any deep thinking. Young Episode must have simply ceded to Mister Dramaturgy and me, his seniors, and Mister Dramaturgy, seeking his bounty, preferred to go first. Actually…I suppose Mister Dramaturgy tried to befriend you, correct? Then he must have been wary of young Episode or I beating you. Of course, your line of reasoning wasn’t outside my consideration either, but if one of those two had slain Heartunderblade, the credit would have redounded to my church all the same.”
“…You wanted to take it easy.”
So he was the one who had put out the bounty.
And what was his goal?
If Dramaturgy was after the bounty and recruits, Episode was likely moved by emotions first and prize second─which was why he hadn’t cared about the order─but what was Guillotine Cutter’s goal?
I didn’t even need to ask.
Duty─that’s what it was.
“Still, this is just as well. I am not one to avoid getting my hands dirty─I begrudge no labor if it is done to better the world.”
But we’ve chatted for long enough, Guillotine Cutter said.
He did talk a lot.
He was probably a talkative man by nature, but maybe his loquacity was also a sign of overconfidence.
There are two ways to defeat a superior opponent. Win by making them overconfident, or win by making them nervous.
It seemed clear that the former was the only option here. That was how I’d beaten both Dramaturgy and Episode.
And at that moment─
Guillotine Cutter seemed overconfident.
While he may have had no openings, he took me lightly.
I had a chance of winning. But to do that─
To do that, I had to abandon my humanity.
“Hanekawa.” Ignoring Guillotine Cutter’s words, I spoke to Hanekawa, whom he still held in his arm. “It’ll be okay.”
Hanekawa didn’t reply.
She couldn’t, because she was being choked.
She only─looked at me.
“I promise I’ll save you,” I added.
“…How unpleasant,” Guillotine Cutter said, in the same calm tone. “I am not so tolerant as to allow myself to be a willing participant in your show of high school friendship. God, which is to say me, has spoken─let it begin.”
“Begin?” I said, now looking at Guillotine Cutter. “How? There’s nothing I can do as long as you have Hanekawa hostage. And I don’t plan on doing anything, either. I absolutely need to submit to you─under those circumstances, how can we even fight?”
“God, which is to say me, has spoken─all you need to do is put your hands up and say ‘I give up’ the moment the battle begins. In other words, the match will be decided as soon as it begins.”
“Okay.” I nodded without so much as a pause. There was no reason to pause. “So start by releasing Hanekawa.”
“Do you really think I’d make it that easy for you? The hostage will be freed after the battle is over. What kind of fool lets go of his weapon in the middle of a fight?”
Was that God speaking, too?
Gimme a break.
Hanekawa? A weapon?
No─she’s different. She’s different from you─and me. She’s not someone you should be allowed to touch!
“Araragi!” Hanekawa cried out then, her neck still in his clutch.
Even as her neck was on the verge of being snapped. Even as she was being threatened with the destruction of her brain.
She still cried out.
“You don’t need to care about me!”
“How could I not care about you?!” I shouted back.
And that─signaled the start of our battle.
Of course, Guillotine Cutter didn’t move─he didn’t do anything. Except inch open his narrow eyes─and laugh at me hysterically.
It was a loud, shrill laugh.
I didn’t want to have to hear it, so I went on shouting. “I told you I’m not so desperate to become human again that I’d do it at your expense. There’s no point in becoming human if I can’t ever see you again!”
And I─hardly even needed to raise my arms.
The battle was over as soon as it started.
Just as Guillotine Cutter had said.
“…What?”
Only─I had won.
I shoved away Guillotine Cutter’s body as hard as I could─and managed to recover Hanekawa’s body in the process.
It was simple.
Extremely simple…and convenient.
“Wh-What are you?” Guillotine Cutter groaned. “That, too, is your vampire power?”
“Nope. That was the power of friendship.”
However─he and I were thirty feet away from each other.
Guillotine Cutter wouldn’t have allowed me to get any closer─and I didn’t trust myself enough with projectiles, be it a shot put or a roller, not to hit Hanekawa whom he’d been using as a shield.
Which was why─I hadn’t moved.
I’d closed the distance without moving.
By transforming my body.
“…Yeah, I don’t see a superpowered school action hero ever doing this.”
Of course they wouldn’t. In fact, it was what an enemy would do.
Just as Dramaturgy had transformed his arms into wavy great-swords─I had turned my arms into plants, stretching them forward as far as they’d go. I’d considered various scenarios, but the image of “extending my body” was hard for me to visualize in a short period of time, so instead, I’d pictured replacing my body with plants.
Plants I could do.
I’d thought every day about how much I wanted to become a plant.
True, I’d never wanted to become a monster─but it had gone exactly as I’d envisioned.
I had doubts about pulling it off like Dramaturgy, even if I was a vampir
e like him─but Oshino had shot me down.
“You can run up walls, and you can jump sixty feet.”
In which case.
“You can pull off a little transformation─the rationale is the same. They say crabs dig holes to match their size and shape, but there’s no need for you to stick to looking like a human. Since Guillotine Cutter thinks you’re a noob vampire, he’ll never expect it─just picture a non-human form and change your body accordingly.”