No Game No Life, Vol. 3

by Yuu Kamiya

  “…As such—”

  That one movement was enough to instantly close the distance between Sora’s group and the golden fox. With those inscrutable eyes of hers, she peered into Sora’s.

  “The Eastern Union, as of now—challenges Elkia to an immediate reprisal.”

  “Wha—?!”

  Ino doubted his ears while Izuna kept her eyes downcast. As far as Ino knew, the Eastern Union had no way to take the offensive. Even if they did, their opponent—was Sora and Shiro. Who had defeated Flügel. Who had legitimately defeated the Eastern Union at their own games. The Werebeasts were hardly in a position to initiate a challenge against those two at all, even assuming that there was the slightest chance of victory—But the Shrine Maiden continued, her expression a mask of resolve as if she were well aware of the circumstances.

  “This is the man who’s blocked off our escape, eh? Now that our hand’s open, we can’t even defend anymore. It’s only a matter of time before he concocts all manner of tricks to create a situation in which we have no choice but to ask for a game.”

  “…Just like you did to Elf and Flügel—Now you’re trapped.”

  The Shrine Maiden laughing mirthlessly as Sora grinned from ear to ear.

  “Shall I be frank? Of the three countries we now face, the only one we still have a chance at beating is Immanity—Elkia.”

  Even that mirthless laugh fading—

  “And you have the bait of our assets and technology. We must reclaim what you took so our country can stand. Else we’ll be in the gutter, poised for destruction… Shall I say it again, lad?

  “You really did it now, you hairless monkeys—we won’t die without a fight, I’ll have you know.”

  From the Shrine Maiden, glaring daggers at Sora as if to stab him to death, there was no longer any tone of conviviality. Only an extraordinary determination—to kill—radiating toward the man before her.

  —If we’re going to die, we’re taking you scum with us!—At this lethal mood pervading the very air, Ino’s spine froze. The Eastern Union. The third-largest country in the world. A race a full two ranks above Immanity. (This man immobilized us in a single move?!)

  —At this unbelievable scenario, his hair stood on end. The plotting that transcended wisdom. The calculation like a devil’s. The malice, the hostility the Shrine Maiden exuded. Though such thoughts were impertinent, disgraceful—still, Ino could only see it now as futile clambering. The Shrine Maiden, the living legend, who had built up the world’s third-greatest nation in only half a century. Now everything she had created was poised to crumble—at a single move by a mere pair of Immanities. But bearing her gaze head-on, Sora opened his mouth.

  “Oh that, that… That’s the part I don’t get…”

  Words that took the air, swelled like a balloon, and deflated the tension in an instant.

  “Why should I destroy this awesomest-in-the-world animal-eared paradise?!”

  Dumbstruck at these words: Ino, Steph, and—the Shrine Maiden herself.

  “This is animal-girls we’re talking about! Here we’ve got a buttload of super-cute furries, and to top it off, a hot golden fox shrine maiden! D00d, the very fact you exist is a cheat!! What kind of failsauce would that be if I were to destroy this worldly treasure?! Losing Werebeast would be a loss for the world…for culture! What the hell is even wrong with that asshat Tet for not putting you on a protected species list?!”

  . The surrounding atmosphere suddenly devoid of all hostility. Ino, Steph—and even the Shrine Maiden—could only stare in shock.

  “So with that in mind—what was it, ‘reprisal,’ you said? Sure thing, let’s do it.”

  With these words, Sora took out—a coin.

  “Even I’m tired of playing all those complex diplomatic games by now. Let’s just get this over with, shall we?”

  The game he suggested with the coin—was clear.

  “I’ll toss the coin. You call heads or tails before it falls. I’ll take the other side. If I win, the Eastern Union’s gonna be annexed into Elkia. What do you think?”

  Sora showed both sides of the coin as he spoke.

  “I’m the one who declared the reprisal. You’re the ones who get to decide the game… But a coin toss, really?”

  “What, you got a problem?”

  At Sora’s dismissive smile, the Shrine Maiden raised a voice and a grin.

  “—Nah, it’s fine.”

  “To think the country I built up over half a century, half my life, should be yanked from its foundations by a pair of hairless monkeys, heh-heh… And the arbiter of its end…is a coin toss—eh-ha-ha-ha!”

  Holding her stomach as she laughed breathlessly, the Shrine Maiden thought:

  —Should be fun in a way, and there’s no turning back. They were playing Immanity, just as she’d mentioned, the only opponent against which they still had the slightest chance. And the game that they proposed…of all things…was a coin toss. No matter what kind of tricks were employed, Werebeast’s—the Shrine Maiden’s—senses could see through everything in this game. And on top of that, they’d said she could pick the side she liked after the toss.

  —How amusing. If she were to lose under these conditions, it was a done deal…that the Eastern Union was on its way to ruin anyway. Switching to a fearless grin, the Shrine Maiden spoke.

  “Why not. Let’s play this game of yours.”

  Sora looked back at this with amusement. As if—yes—as if watching a comrade.

  “I knew you were one of us. I like you more and more.”

  “My demand, mind—is that you guarantee the rights of Werebeast and give us the right of self-government and resources from the continent.”

  The one who’d made the challenge…was the Shrine Maiden, so there was no point in asking for impossible demands he’d just dismiss. Instead, she’d go high risk, low return, but still as far as she could get away with. The Shrine Maiden calculated that this demand was it. To ask for the continental resources to be “returned” was the same as denying the preceding first match entirely. Now that they’d seized the initiative, her choices—were all too limited.

  —But if she could at least secure a guarantee of Werebeasts’ rights…

  “If you can just get us to guarantee the rights of Werebeast, then you’ll at least be able to get back the Werebeasts left on the continent. And then you’ll have a foothold from which to take back your resources—yeah, those are some Shrine Maiden skills you got.”

  Sora answered the Shrine Maiden’s demand with a smile that seemed to say, “You pass.” (The bloke’s seen through everything?)

  “Well, then—shall we proceed with what is probably the maddest coin toss the world has ever seen?”

  “You’re quite amusing, lad… Would you mind terribly if I had a say in your demand?”

  “Depends what you’ve got?”

  “Swear you won’t mistreat Izuna or Ino—or my people. Even if you get the Werebeast Piece.”

  —Yes, if the Eastern Union was annexed into Elkia…the agency of the Eastern Union, currently held by the Shrine Maiden—would automatically pass to Sora and Shiro. What lay beyond that was servitude or oppression… In any case, they had no future save ruin—that was what it meant to lose the Race Piece. To these final words from the Shrine Maiden, Sora’s expression clearly indicated, “This time you fail.”

  “—You still don’t get it? Eh, whatever—Aschente.”

  “Aschente—let’s go.”

  And so, perhaps the highest-risk coin toss in history. Started—with a clink from Sora’s hand.

  The moment the coin resounded from Sora’s hand. The golden Shrine Maiden’s eyes and fur—were stained red like an exploding paint balloon.

  “—Wha…?!”

  Utter shock as, most likely, no one there had known that the Shrine Maiden was capable of “bloodbreak.”

  —Yet while Sora and Shiro treated it as nothing, everyone else raised their voices.

  (Well, let’s let ’e
m see how futile my struggling is, shall we?) At the same instant her blood splattered, the Shrine Maiden’s subjective world came to a standstill. The entirety of her psyche accelerated—her keenly honed senses, her sixth sense, even her perception of magic—reading everything.

  —One magic response. From the Flügel before her. But none of that prickly sensation of a rite being woven. Only the fetal movements of spirits that arose by virtue of a Flügel’s presence. No one there was using magic—meaning there was no magical impropriety. (But it can’t be the lad’s got nothing up his sleeve, can it?) In the mind of the smirking Shrine Maiden, once more, the world snapped.

  —With a sound that went whapow…her awareness, already expanded by her bloodbreak, further expanded to a range that threatened to destroy her. Her senses, exceeding the limits of physics—grasped everything within a five-hundred-meter radius. A force field—breaking out the spiritual boundaries of the shrine. The space in a radius of five hundred meters that had become the Shrine Maiden’s world: everything that existed there—every leaf and grain of sand—she felt move, held in her hands, so close she could count them. (No magic response anywhere here—not even from the…coin?) Suspicion spread through the Shrine Maiden’s heart.

  —The Shrine Maiden’s senses encompassed the drafts of wind, the dust that drifted in it, each individual particle. The revolution speed of the coin was stable. Magical tricks were not in play. But the coin did trace a course sufficiently regular that she could tell it had been tossed in a deliberate fashion. Indeed, it traced exactly the path she had expected and fell. Which meant—after 142⅔ revolutions, it would hit the floor, and after four rebounds and 5.2 seconds of spinning—it would come up tails. It was obvious that Sora had tossed it so that it would. (For the lad to underestimate so my vision for moving objects, my senses…would be implausible.) After the game with Izuna, this man could hardly misunderstand a Werebeast’s senses. But assuming there was no trick, the coin would definitely land tails. As long as the Shrine Maiden answered tails, if it didn’t come up tails, there was an impropriety for sure. Which she had no mind to overlook. But—with Sora’s heartbeat, Shiro’s heartbeat, the response of the spirits in Jibril’s body—and…even Izuna—pounding regularly to indicate certainty in Sora’s victory, what was she to make of it. Answer heads or tails before it started to fall?

  —Why wait?

  “…Tails, lad.”

  The recoil from having exceeded her limits barraged her body at the same time as she recalled her bloodbreak. This wasn’t a game world as with Izuna; it was a bloodbreak in reality. Just as the name indicated. It would break her blood—in some cases even take her life with the power it cost. If she used that and still lost…

  (—A right ass I’d be. ’Twould be a droll jest if aught.) The coin, arcing gently, beginning to fall.

  —If it was tails, the Shrine Maiden would win. If it was heads, foul play would be proven, and Sora would lose. All she’d have to do was present the evidence, and then Sora shouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Opening eyes clouded by the recoil from her bloodbreak, taking care not to miss the moment of falsehood. And as the coin turned gracefully—

  —it fell toward the stone pavement, hit the stone, and—

  —stayed. Wedged between the stones—on end.

  ……

  ……What?

  “Oh my God, does this mean it’s a draw?! Like, holy shit, amirite?!”

  At Sora’s insincere query, everyone but Ino, Steph, and the Shrine Maiden—even Izuna, who until that moment had had her head downcast—let out a smile.

  “Whoa, man. If the coin stands, does it mean we both win or we both lose?”

  Theatrically, Sora put his hand to his chin and acted as if thinking as he asked.

  “If we both win—it means both of our demands go through, so then…? You come under Elkia’s umbrella, yet Werebeast gets guaranteed rights, continued self-governance, and a share in the continental resources…so it’s like…

  “The Eastern Union becomes part of the ‘Commonwealth’ of Elkia, right? ”

  As Sora blithely proposed a multiracial national federation, the Shrine Maiden found herself at a loss for words.

  —The Shrine Maiden knew. That Sora knew that the stone he was standing on could move and stood there intentionally. Tossing the coin so that just before it fell—he could shift his weight upon the stone a bit and let the coin fall into the gap. A blatantly—practically insultingly—obvious “impropriety.” By the Ten Covenants, an impropriety discovered meant a loss. All the Shrine Maiden had to do was point it out, and she would win. But a question that assailed the Shrine Maiden prevented her from making the point—

  “My—my dear…you… Aren’t you giving me more than I sought?!”

  …Yes, were she to accept the “win-win” Sora had presented, the Shrine Maiden would walk away with more than she’d asked while Sora’s benefit from his demand would fade. However one looked at it, he was cheating to the Shrine Maiden’s—to the Eastern Union’s—advantage.

  —For that reason, the Shrine Maiden couldn’t easily point out his duplicity. She had to figure out Sora’s true motive—but the king of Immanity just continued playfully.

  “Uhh, so you’re saying a girl probably lording it over the Eastern Union, a smart chick so über-hot she’s like the alpha and the omega, still won’t frickin’ listen? So now she’s got the clumsy-girl status, too, making her basically a moe goddess?!”

  —Won’t…frickin’…listen? Had she, out of the entire assemblage, missed something? The Shrine Maiden widened her eyes, reviewed everything that had led up to the present. And immediately these words caught. This is animal-girls we’re talking about?! Here we’ve got a buttload of super-cute furries, and to top it off, a hot golden fox shrine maiden. D00d, the very fact you exist is a cheat—

  —“So, with that in mind”—

  “…You…were always…?”

  “Huh, what’s this now? I mean, you want it to be win-win? Or you want it to be lose-lose? Which do you prefer?”

  Sora twisted his body frivolously and put the question to the gaping Shrine Maiden.

  (…He really… He really had me dancing to his tune from start to finish… I see now.) The Shrine Maiden, muttering silently—found herself out of options. In all likelihood, no one would ask why by this point, but the Shrine Maiden chuckled to herself and thought. (It…goes without sayin’…) If these people—came to win for real…her confidence she could win was nonexistent.

  “…You dirty knave… Let’s say it’s win-win, then.”

  Smiling thusly, she sat down on a nearby rock out of the exhaustion from the bloodbreak, and she clutched her belly.

  “Heh-heh, hee-hee-hee! You really…you really amuse me! You wags! Eh-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  What a joke, what a joke of a game. What a joke of a trick! What a farce of a fraud! These rascals who’d wagged the Eastern Union, wagged Werebeast—wagged me! Good Lord! They’d taken her so sweepingly, all the Shrine Maiden could do was laugh. Even her doubtful Can I really trust these folks?—had flown. If this had been Sora’s aim from the very beginning, his true purpose—was plain to see.

  —That is. (This chap doesn’t even—want the Werebeast Piece.) That could mean…only one thing.

  This man—truly intended to take on the God. And that was why he realized.

  —A Race Piece…was not to be taken—

  And, thereupon—with the fullest of smiles, Sora stretched grandly.

  “Mmmmm! So basically, we become the ‘Commonwealth of Elkia.’ Can I take it we’re good?”

  Having come this far, still—with a face that said he’d give the Shrine Maiden a special shocking jack-in-the-box—Sora spoke.

  “You know Elven Gard? We used the Covenants to alter their informant’s memories before she reported. Elven Gard’s—heard the Eastern Union’s game wrong.”

  “Wha—…?”

  With that, Sora stuck up his thumb and stuck ou
t his tongue, and with an expression that alleviated all the tension a funny face could, he casually uttered something unbelievable.

  “So—I’m—saying, when those d00ds come for you, lead ’em on—and then kick their asses. Might even help you out if you give me a call… Hit me up; we’ll separate those fools from their territory, yeah?”

  —At this point, finally, Steph and Ino understood. The true reason Chlammy and Fi—had had to be there. To study the Eastern Union for foul play, to bluff that they had the Eastern Union on its knees, and furthermore—to undermine.

  (—Even this, was part—of the game?) What crossed Steph’s mind was a resounding “yes,” as she recalled Sora’s assertion before coming here that “the game’s not over.”

  “Oh, and Avant Heim, that was just something Jibril instigated using her clout. The nation itself doesn’t have any ill will toward the Eastern Union. Anyway, we’re in the countdown before Avant Heim falls under Elkia’s umbrella, so you can just ignore them… Anyhoo—”

  Sora, having successfully baffled everyone gathered there, firing off one incredible utterance after the other, finally let out one big breath so as to move on.

  “—Andso! We’re good, right? This wraps it all up, right? Right?”

  Steph could not help but comment on the manner is which her master fidgeted at this last line.

  “Wh—why you so nervous?”

  It was as if she’d triggered a land mine.

  “Whaat?! Why the hell do you think I went through all this tedious bullshit?!”

  Like a broken dam, Sora poured out his heart.

  “I did it all so I’d get to pet animal-girls! I can’t take it anymore! Shrine Maiden!”

  “Uh, eh, what?”

  “It is time you allow us to pet you!”

  “…Pet you—!”

  Sora and Shiro scrutinized the Shrine Maiden with steel in their eyes. Still, she responded with a very kind smile.