Chapter 15 — The Ceiling Suddenly Collapses. Yogiri and Two Others Are Crushed to Death

The Gunslinger Kiyoko Takekura had decided to kill her classmates almost immediately. Among the group were those who couldn't decide what to do, those who would rebel against the Sage, and those who simply refused to participate. But such weak sentiments would only get them killed. She would get rid of her opponents, whoever they were. That resolve was more important than anything right now. At the start, most of them would likely be timidly testing each other, so if she was ready to kill right off the bat, she'd have an advantage over the others.

Kiyoko walked through the forest. Her first order of business was to get away from the fortress. Fighting within the Carpenter Osamu Arima's territory would be a clear disadvantage.

She tried the triggers of each of her handguns, but they didn't move. She attempted to summon another gun, but that failed as well. It seemed that until the trial began, their skills had been completely blocked, with only items they'd had before the trial's announcement remaining on hand. Of course, she could have guessed that from the fact that the fortress was still standing.

The Idol Sora Akino's Oath had also disappeared, which had made things particularly unfair as it had previously prevented the students from attacking each other.

Looking for anything else she might have missed, she noticed there were more system windows in her user display than usual. After choosing one labeled "Sage Candidate Selection Battle," a timer appeared. It seemed to be counting down to when the battle would begin. There was also a list of all the participants and a map. Sixteen names were on the list, with Seiichi Fukai's name grayed out. That must be how they would keep track of who was still alive.

Wait, isn't the number of people here wrong? she thought. There were eighteen left in their class. Looking over the list again, she realized that Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura weren't on it. Well, I'll probably just kill them anyway if I see them. There was no reason to distract herself by wondering why they weren't included.

The map showed their immediate surroundings, with a marker indicating her current location. A red circle was drawn around the region to mark the combat zone.

The trial was limited to the area within the wall surrounding the center of the Underworld, but that was still a lot of space. The hole itself was twenty kilometers across, and the distance between the wall and the center was another hundred meters. If everyone split up, never mind fighting, just finding each other would be difficult enough. Running and hiding would be easy, but if they did that, Sion would come and kill them.

So, where to?

Kiyoko headed for the gate in the wall.

◇ ◇ ◇

Tomochika had climbed a tree, hiding among the thickly growing leaves. Clothed in the battle suit made from the material they'd obtained from the Aggressor, she was ready for combat. She was close to the wall, almost at the edge of the area for the trial.

You ran away on your own awfully quickly. Even Jiyuna and Romiko fled together.

"Wait, seriously?!"

Avoiding notice from the others, she had slipped away from the fortress and into the darkness, finding a tree to hide in like it was the obvious solution. She figured that if everyone was going to kill each other, running off alone was the only sensible option, but now that she stopped to think about it, it did make her seem awfully heartless.

I'm not criticizing you for it; I'm praising you.

"Ugh...but wouldn't working in a group be dangerous? It would be different if it was Takatou."

Yogiri was already missing when Sion appeared. If he had been there, none of this would have happened, but there was no point in griping about it now.

I managed to make contact with the boy, by the way. Apparently, he ended up falling down to the seventh level.

"What do you mean he 'fell down'? Is he okay?!" Yogiri may have had some unbelievable abilities, but as far as she knew, he still had the body of an ordinary human, so it was hard to believe he could survive a fall like that.

He sounded well enough, so I imagine he made it somehow. He said that he was trying to get back, but he didn't seem to know how. So we'll need to find a way to survive until then.

"That's a lot easier said than done. Wait! I don't have that system or whatever installed, remember? Maybe I'm not even part of this trial!"

It's a bit optimistic to think you alone were left out in that room full of people. It would be best to assume you're included.

"Well, I don't really feel like going out and killing anyone, so I'm fine with running away. It doesn't look like the others are hiding, though."

If they run too far, they can't kill anyone. Seems like quite the dilemma.

Tomochika looked around for signs of anyone else. She noticed that, despite the fact that they should have scattered in all directions, there were a number of people positioned between the fortress and the wall. The two structures were the only real landmarks in the area, so she supposed it was natural for others to gather around them.

"Do you think we can stay hidden here?"

I wonder. I can't imagine many of them would be able to find you if you tried to keep out of sight, but if they have some sort of skill for finding enemies, that might be a problem, in which case, it would be best to keep moving.

"Will Takatou be able to find us here?"

I told him where we are, and I can communicate with him by phone along the way, so we should be able to manage.

"All right, let's wait, then. I think running around would be too dangerous." If their plan was to meet up, it would be most effective to stay in one place.

Well, I suppose you have me as well. With both of us keeping watch, it won't be easy for someone to get the jump on us.

As Tomochika made up her mind to wait, the sound of gunfire split the air. The rapid shots continued relentlessly, giving no indication of stopping any time soon.

It seems the trial has begun. Based on the noise, it must be the Gunslinger, right?

The only one in the class who used a gun was Kiyoko Takekura. Her power allowed her to summon firearms. In a world with magic, that wasn't a big deal, but the fact that she could shoot them continuously without reloading, and endow the bullets with special properties, made it an incredibly strong ability.

"Well, no way I'm beating her," Tomochika commented, wondering if it was selfish of her not to intervene. But even if she wanted to, she had no way of stopping the fight. All she could do now was wait.

◇ ◇ ◇

I hid in the wall because I thought it was at least a little better than the forest. There was more cover here, and there were also some lights set up. It was much better than cowering in the dark of the woods, afraid of enemies approaching from every angle.

However, the others seemed to feel the same way, as a number of my classmates ran to the wall as well. Rather than hiding here, though, it was more like they were trying to turn the area into their primary battleground. The inside of the wall was rather large, but they didn't go that far, which was to be expected. Anyone who didn't kill another would themselves be killed by the Sage. In other words, if you ran too far, you'd be at a disadvantage.

At the moment, I was hiding above the ceiling, looking down. For now, I was content to watch what was happening. But what to do next? I was a bit concerned, since I didn't have any direct combat abilities. So I'd have to try to make a trap for someone, but would killing with a trap like that count? If not, I was in a pretty bad spot. Winning in a straight fight would basically be impossible.

Then again, if that ended up being the case, I'd have no choice but to do it anyway. The Sage was watching this fight, so I had to hope she recognized the traps I set as my own way of fighting. But what kind of setup should I use? As I began to think that over, someone arrived. A girl with glasses and braided hair stepped into the room I was watching.

Kiyoko Takekura. Her class was Gunslinger. As the name suggested, she fought with guns. That was the worst option for me. The odds weren't in my favor when it came to fighting anyone else, but I had absolutely no chance against her. Holding my breath, I desperately hoped that she would go somewhere else. But as if to stomp on that wish, she pointed one of her guns up towards the ceiling.

She wasn't just pointing at somewhere random, either. She was aiming directly at me.

"How?!"

Without so much as a word in answer, she pulled the trigger. In moments, I had been punched full of holes.

◇ ◇ ◇

In a short time he would be shot to death by Kiyoko Takekura. That was the future Yukimasa Aihara had just read about. The small paperback book he possessed told him about the near future. And even though he knew it was coming, now that it was already written down, there was no way for him to change it. If things proceeded as planned, unable to resist destiny, he would be forced to do exactly what the book said.

"Let's erase as much as we can, then."

However, Yukimasa could rewrite the contents of the book. And in doing so, he could control his own actions and the events happening around him.

Tracing the letters on the page with a finger, he watched them disappear. He could only erase from the part of the text that occurred after he had climbed up to the ceiling. After all, he had taken up his position there just a few moments before, and he couldn't change things that had already occurred.

Yukimasa considered what developments should follow. By writing in the book, he could alter the future, but he couldn't simply write anything that came to mind. He could only put down things that seemed plausible, and he couldn't do anything that contradicted earlier parts of the text.

So, how would he proceed? It seemed that Kiyoko knew Yukimasa was here. She was probably coming here specifically to kill him, so it would be hard to change such a firmly rooted action. Just in case, he tried writing that Kiyoko wouldn't enter the room, but the letters vanished immediately. Her arrival was already set in stone, so he would need to change something that didn't directly involve her.

Yukimasa flipped through the book, looking for something that might be useful in this situation. The first thing he thought of was bringing another classmate in to fight her. Luckily, it looked like a number of other students were hiding inside the wall nearby.

Kiyoko enters the room. At the same time, another person enters from the opposite door. He wrote the words quickly and waited for a short while. The letters didn't disappear; the rewrite had been accepted.

He didn't know who would come in or what would happen next. As frustrating as it was, he had no idea when new text would show up in the book, either. It didn't seem like it would be updated any time soon. He had no choice but to wait and see what happened with his own eyes.

After a while, Kiyoko stepped into the room. At the same time, someone else entered through the opposite door: Ayaka Shinozaki, the vengeful monster who had killed eight of his classmates. By rewriting his fate, he may have brought an even worse disaster down on all of them. But as planned, Kiyoko's attention was immediately drawn to Ayaka. If those two fought, it would give him the chance he needed.

As Kiyoko pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation, Yukimasa wasted no time, rushing down the stairs.

◇ ◇ ◇

The sound of gunfire filled the air. It told the story of an intense battle between the two of them, which meant they would have been too engrossed in their own fight to notice me. Counting on that, I ran, making it through a number of rooms.

After escaping to some distance away, I finally stopped to catch my breath and calm down. I was okay. I had managed to make it this far. But that was only a temporary reprieve. Somehow, I would need to get the drop on someone, or there was no way I would survive.

I checked my book. How did Kiyoko know I was here? If I couldn't figure that out, I wouldn't be able to get away from her for good. I flipped through and found a side story about her in my book. According to the text, her guns were a kind of "smart gun" and had numerous sensors inside them. She had used those to find me. So, if I kept far enough away from her, I would be able to avoid detection.

I looked around. The room seemed like it hadn't been used in ages, and the signs of that lack of maintenance were strong. I knew I couldn't stay here long, but there was one thing that caught my interest: a metal door.

It was the kind of door one would find on a submarine, with a large handle. I tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. Curious about what was beyond it, I checked the map in my system window, which displayed details about the entire area of the trial. Beyond the door was a small room that looked like it could only fit a few people.

In short, the room was a dead end. The option of staying here was looking more and more dangerous. When I turned to leave the room, however, the handle of the metal door suddenly began to spin. I hurriedly jumped out of the chamber and peeked back inside.

Two people stepped through the door. I recognized both of them: my classmates, Yogiri Takatou and Daimon Hanakawa. Looking closer, I saw that Hanakawa was also carrying the local man called David.

◇ ◇ ◇

As he reached the dead end, Yukimasa read through the updated text in his book. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but Yogiri Takatou, David, and the long-missing Daimon Hanakawa would be arriving there shortly. He decided that this was his best chance.

Yogiri's only ability was to kill insects, so he was entirely useless against other people. Hanakawa was supposed to be a healer, so he wouldn't have much in the way of combat ability either. He could theoretically recover if the attack wasn't thorough enough, but his defensive powers wouldn't be particularly impressive, so killing him in one shot wouldn't be difficult. David had the power to suppress the Gift, but he seemed to be unconscious at the moment, so Yukimasa figured he wouldn't pose a threat.

Of course, it wouldn't be easy to kill the three of them, but it was a much better proposition than trying to take on the other monsters in the class. If he could kill these three, he would at least pass the requirements of the first hour. On top of that, killing anyone at all carried a chance of improving his own abilities, so he should ideally take any available opportunity to get rid of anyone else he ran into. But how?

Yukimasa looked around the room. There were any number of possibilities. He tried to write a few lines in his book.

The ceiling collapsed. The three of them were crushed to death.

It was hardly quality literature, but he had no obligation to make the story interesting.

The ceiling collapsed —

But the second half of the sentence immediately disappeared. So, dropping the roof on them wouldn't work. There were still plenty of options, though. As he tried a different approach, the book suddenly filled in the previous line for him:

I died.

Yukimasa shuddered. There had never been such a seemingly final mention of his death before. Being filled with holes, or caught in a cave-in, or torn apart by monsters — those kinds of graphic descriptions were plentiful and obviously suggested his death, but a direct mention of it had never shown up before.

"That's...kind of strange for a first-person story, isn't it?"

He tried to make light of it. If he was the writer, there was no way he would write about his own death. At any rate, all he had to do was remove the line.

He quickly traced the letters, erasing them. He would have to focus on setting up a development that wouldn't accidentally result in his own death at the same time. But before he could think of a new scenario to write about, the letters reappeared.

I died.

He erased them again.

I disappeared.

I vanished.

I became nothing.

My vital functions ceased.

I ended.

"What is going on?! I'm supposed to have the strongest ability, to see the future and change it!" It wasn't the ability to make things go however he wanted, but it should have been enough that, with a bit of clever thinking, he could get out of any situation.

But the book was no longer permitting any development except for his own death. No matter how many times he erased the words, it would just display another way of saying that he had died.

"Shit! What am I supposed to do?!"

Death.

Death.

Death.

Death.

Death.

Death.

The text was no longer even forming sentences. The words were repeating so rapidly that Yukimasa couldn't erase them fast enough. But his entire power relied on using the book, so he couldn't just throw it away.

"That's right! If I destroy it..." He immediately ripped out the page, shredding it into tiny pieces. It would stop being a novel that way. Tearing out each page, he ripped the entire book apart. He could very well lose his ability by doing it, but his slowly approaching demise was far more frightening.

"A-Anyway, I should run."

He had no idea why, but he knew that if Yogiri arrived, he himself would die. So he turned away from the metal door and began to run from the room.

However, a terrible premonition stopped him dead in his tracks. He needed to run, but he couldn't help but worry about the thing behind him. He knew he didn't need to, but he felt driven to turn and look back. Every instinct told him not to do it, yet a similar instinct told him it was wrong to ignore the source of his fear.

Yukimasa turned around. Nothing had changed. The only things in the room were the scattered pieces of his book. There was nothing else. It was all in his head. He tried to convince himself of that.

Suddenly, letters appeared on the ground. Words describing his death spilled out of the book's remnants where they covered the floor. In an instant, the words had crawled up the walls and reached the ceiling. The persistence of those words seemed determined to tell him there was no way he could escape it.

With a clunk, something reached the other side of the metal door, and the handle began to turn. The door opened, and Yogiri's group stepped out. Cracking sounds came from the ceiling, bits of mortar flaking down. And then Yukimasa met Yogiri's eyes.

"Die."

That merciless command was the last thing he ever heard.

◇ ◇ ◇

"What?! Is that how you greet people?! He was one of our classmates!" Hanakawa shrieked.

"I felt killing intent coming from him," Yogiri replied. He had sensed danger from the ceiling above, and knew that the source of it had been Yukimasa Aihara, so he had killed him first. That was all there was to it.

"No, no, no, they were all forced by the Sage to kill each other, right? He was a victim!"

Yogiri had briefly explained to Hanakawa what was happening on the sixth level. He had figured the information would be necessary to keep Hanakawa from losing his head when they came across people fighting.

"So? Is it okay to kill people just because someone is telling you to? It doesn't matter why; it was his decision in the end. Why blame someone else?"

"I feel like your attitude here is getting to be scarier than your abilities!"

Putting the terrified Hanakawa out of his mind, Yogiri took out his phone to check in with Mokomoko.

"No answer. They might be in trouble. We should hurry."

"How are you even using a phone here?! Oh, I got a system message."

"What does it say?"

Those who had the Gift installed could see a system menu in their vision. Yogiri didn't have it, so he had no idea what it looked like.

"Huh?! It says I've been entered into the Sage Candidates Selection Battle!"

"Oh, good. That's perfect. So, if you try to leave the area, Sion will come and kill you now."

"Ha! Really, that's too cruel even for you!"

Even if Yogiri and Tomochika survived until the end, or tried to leave the area, there was no guarantee that Sion would appear since they hadn't officially been recognized as participants. Hanakawa was proving to be more and more useful to have around.