31 I Get Lost in a Special Quest

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/34/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

◆◇Sight: Third person◇◆

 

Collapsed in reality, having lost consciousness, Suzuhi is walking a pitch-black space with nothing in it.

“〖Night Vision〗〖Super Night Vision〗——no good, I can’t see anything.”

Even using skills, the darkness does not change.
Is there no light or temperature here.
But her own hands and body are clearly visible——if there is no light they should not be visible. A space that does not feel like reality.

“The quest didn’t show a ‘yes, no’ choice…… a forced event?”

And she does not understand how to get out of here——the anxiety “or rather, am I even alive?” crosses her mind.

“Alice not here? Ill-san! Viewers, can someone comment!”

No reaction at all.
In this pitch-black space there is no figure of Yachimata Alice, no Swallowtail drone, and the viewers’ comments have completely vanished from her vision.

“〖Sixth Sense〗——no reaction.”

Suzuhi, finally at her limit, fearfully uses her last straw, not knowing what she will see.

“〖Psychometry〗”

At the skill’s result, Suzuhi lifts her face.

“There was a reaction.”

After her vision goes rough like digital noise, a faint reaction. A thread-thin light she might miss if she is not careful.
The instant she sees it——Suzuhi feels like she saw “two girls hugging happily and laughing.”
And someone else, “a figure trying to hug a blue light”——the her she saw had emotionless eyes, and was crying.
Probably Psychometry’s effect.

“Th-——who are these people?”

The thread-thin light flies deeper.

“This way?”

A light so weak she cannot tell what memory it is. It feels like it is calling her.
In the pitch-black space it flies swaying like a white firefly and becomes Suzuhi’s guidepost.
But the light also resembles a lost child wandering with nowhere to go——it is just lonely.
A light so sad it is unreliable.

Eventually Suzuhi’s feet stop.

“A gi…rl?”

What appears in her vision is a naked girl hugging her knees.
Her expression hidden by shortened silver hair is pressed further into her knees, so Suzuhi cannot judge what face she has.

“Did you call me?”

But there is no reaction from the girl hugging her knees.

“……W-what do I do.”

Suzuhi wants to get out of here. She wants to go back to the original place.
She is someone who calms down as a loner, but if she stays in a place this dark forever her head will go weird.
And the only clue to escape is the her in front of her eyes.
Suzuhi is bad at talking with people. So bad it makes her dizzy.
But she has no choice but to talk.
And if she is asking her for help, she also wants to save her.
For now, Suzuhi sits next to the girl. She ends up deploying a large personal space, leaving a one-person distance.
She rethinks “this is not a talking distance after all,” and scoots to the absolute limit she can manage.
And the girl being naked bothers her. But there is only herself and her, and they are both girls, so she concludes it is fine.
Suzuhi tries to talk with the girl and speaks again.

“……Um, did you call me?”

But there is no reaction from the girl.
Suzuhi almost loses heart, but she does not give up and challenges again and again.

“Where is this?”

Silence flows.

“Who are you?”

No answer.

“Aren’t you cold?”

Every word she hangs on her ends in a complete miss. There is still no reaction from the other party, and no opening for conversation.
Suzuhi thinks for a while and decides to hang on her the words she herself most wants to be told right now.

“Did something happen?”

Then there is a reaction from the girl.

“……Yeah.”

But only a word showing affirmation comes back. The girl does not even lift her face from her knees.
Of course, conversation does not start.
But there is an opening.

“What happened?”

After a long silence, an answer comes back.

“———I couldn’t save my friend.”

There is an answer…… but Suzuhi, at how painfully the girl looks, this time cannot continue her own words.

“I…… see.”

The only thing she manages to return is that one word.
Suzuhi is starting to resent her own comms-disorder level.
At a time like this, would Yachimata-san talk at her aggressively and pull her into her own pace. She ends up thinking that.
Suzuhi gets awkward and looks around.
Of course around her there is only darkness, nothing to look at.
From the discomfort she cannot help pretending to search for something.

“Pitch black——how long have you been in a place like this.”
“1,100 years.”

Unintentionally there is an answer.
But Suzuhi, at the outrageous number that comes out, cannot help being surprised and asking back.

“1,100 years!?——Doesn’t it hurt……!?”
“This unit’s emotions are thin——even so at first it hurt, but I don’t feel anything anymore. Maybe the device broke.”

(This unit…… device?)

Suzuhi cannot ask back the meaning of these unsettling words.

“Why are you here?”
“Because I tried to save my friend.”
“Save? Your friend, where are they?”
“The center of the galaxy.”
“Eh, that’s——the Mother MoB!?——The Mother MoB is human!?”

The girl, face still buried in her knees, nods small.

“Too worst.”

Suzuhi spat the impression small, like vomiting.

“Hey, let’s get out of here. Don’t stay in a weird place like this.”
“Why.”
“You look really lonely. You mustn’t stay in a lonely place like this.”

The girl lifts her face at Suzuhi’s worried words.
She is a girl like a fairy, with pupils that have irises like gears glowing gold. She is looking at Suzuhi.
Eventually the girl shakes her head small.

“This unit probably will not leave here.”
“———Why.”
“Because I cannot save my friend.”
“No, let’s help her! It might work out somehow!”
“Impossible, I cannot save her anymore. The Galactic Union’s marshal also looked for a way to save the human who became the Mother MoB——but in the end they only found a way to kill her. It’s already impossible.”
“But didn’t you ask me for help!?”
“This unit ask you for help? I would not do that——I cannot.”
“Eh.”

The girl denies it, but she immediately reverses her words.
She averts the eyes that were looking at Suzuhi and murmurs.

“——But I may have called——”
“What do you……”

Suzuhi is confused, but the girl’s continuing voice is like a monologue of self-questioning.
The girl shakes her head without changing expression.
Her silver hair sways, looking lonely.

“This unit’s name is Inori.”
“Ah———, I’m Suzuhi——Inori? Prayer? How do you write it? Mine written as cool princess.”
“Mine is written as reason of life, and read it Inori.”
“The reason of life, a prayer————a pretty name.”

There is a brief silence.
Inori is just gazing at the distant darkness——that gaze also looks like she is seeing some past.
Inori slowly brings her gaze back and asks Suzuhi.

“Hey, Suzuhi——will you listen to an old story?”
“Yeah, tell me.”

“Once upon a time there was a girl who smiled like a sunlit place.
The girl’s name was Iris.
The Star Cluster Empire Unileus needed many Datanoids for the war.
But the treatment of Datanoids was never gentle; it was harsh.
Iris, who happened to see the suffering Datanoids, ends up trying to save them.
But, as it happens, the Star Cluster Empire is in the middle of a war with Vector——the parallel-world people.”

“Parallel-world people?”

“Yes, invaders from a parallel world. Parallel-world people (Vector).”

“So something like that came attacking……”

Inori nods and continues.

“If they stop using Datanoids, the Star Cluster Empire will lose the war.
If they lose the war, the Datanoids will be exposed to an even harsher fate.
To Iris, suffering under contradictory conditions, the Star Cluster Empire whispers.
‘You just have to end the war.’ And ‘You have that power.’
The Star Cluster Empire leads Iris astray and decides to make her a test subject for technology obtained from the enemy.”

“Eh……——technology obtained from the enemy, so that’s”

“Iris is made by the Star Cluster Empire into the mental core of the mental weapon MoB——a Mother MoB, and sent to the parallel world as a weapon to destroy humanity.
Iris splendidly destroys the parallel world’s humanity and returns.”

“I-I see, so you won. Then……”

“However, at the destination Iris returns to, humanity still remains.
Iris is programmed to destroy humanity.
The Star Cluster Empire has not factored Iris’s return into their assumptions.
Thus the war between Iris and this world’s humanity begins.”

“……Eh, this side’s humanity became an attack target too!?”

“This world’s humanity falls into a disadvantage against Iris, who keeps producing combat power infinitely.
Moreover the Mother MoB with Iris as its core is far more powerful than Vector’s Mother MoB.
Humanity is no match for her at all.
So humanity executes an operation to seal Iris in the center of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole——Sagittarius A*.
——The operation succeeds, and Iris falls into the supermassive black hole.
But Iris evolves even inside the black hole, and becomes able to transfer her kin into the galaxy from inside the black hole.
Thus this world’s humanity’s last war begins.
The result, humanity loses and perishes.
——At last having destroyed all of humanity, Iris finishes her role and goes to sleep.
One of the Datanoids Iris tried to save keeps aiming for Sagittarius A* alone, trying to inject an enzyme that can decompose Iris——but she is caught by remnant Datanoids and Humanoids of the Star Cluster Empire and sealed in a VR space. As a memory that stores Iris’s raw data.”

Having finished listening, Suzuhi is angry at how unreasonable it is.

“……Awful.”
“Hey, Suzuhi.”

When Suzuhi notices, Inori is peering into Suzuhi’s eyes.
From Inori’s gear-like pupils, several threads of light are spilling.
She cannot think at all that she has no emotions.

“Suzuhi——. Suzuhi, who can come all the way to a place like this……”

Inori’s lips tremble with sobs, and she repeats “Suzuhi” in broken pieces.

“……I have a…… request.”
“Yeah, Inori-chan.”
“This unit——will send you back to reality now.”
“Yeah.”

Inori’s hands are clenched hard.
That part, which is a biological component, has lost its blood, clenched so hard it turns white, and is trembling.

“Iris is a kind girl. She even finds it hard to shoot other people in a game. That her was made into humanity’s enemy——Iris would absolutely hate this. ——If you inject a certain enzyme, Iris can die. So————please, Iris——”

Suzuhi looks at Inori’s eyes and quietly nods and answers.

“——Please, please————!!”

Inori’s words are already a scream.
She squeezes her eyes shut, shakes her body, lets something red flow from inside her fists, and begs as if shouting.
But before Inori can say it all, Suzuhi tells her first.

“Ki——”
“Let’s go together, Floor 100. And let’s make Iris-san smile!”

At Suzuhi’s words, Inori’s eyes go wide.

“Smi……——”

After a questioning voice, Inori connects the broken words as if drawing a breath.

“———le?”
“Yes.”
“Smi, le?”
“Yeah, a smile!”

The edges of the eyelids wrapping the gear-like irises open so wide they might tear.

“Make the Mother MoB smile————? A-are you saying that seriously?”
“Because a girl who’s having a hard time is something you make smile!”

Inori opens her eyes even wider and her expression jumps.
Then she nods.
Again and again, again and again, like something broken.

“Yeah, yeah…… yeah, yeah——that’s right————yes, that’s it.”
“The marshal-san from when Inori-chan was outside was trying to save Iris-san too, right? Then if 1,100 years have passed, maybe they’ve found some way to save Iris-san. So first let’s go to Floor 100. Then we can think about various things, there must be some method! Even Floor 100, if you can’t go alone, we just go together. I’m doing this thing called streaming, and if I ask there I think there are people who’ll lend their strength!”
“……Together?”
“Yes, together!”

At Suzuhi’s words, Inori lowers her face and wipes her tears. She takes a big breath and straightens her back.
She stretches her chin and trembles, swallows the sobs, and her throat sounds.

“Suzuhi.”
“What, Inori-chan.”
“I have a request.”
“Yeah.”
“Please make Iris——smile!”
“Leave it to me!”