Kazuki the Black Tone - 2

"Ta-taaaaah…taaah, tah. Ta-taaah."

The high-pitched, clear voice spun a melody across the unpopulated wilderness.

Along the mountain road, skirt flapping in the sunset, a single figure twirled the muskets in each of their hands.

The person who had finished up killing the three mercenaries was a woman.

In her midtwenties, she wore a girlish skirt that seemed to clash with her boorish military coat.

"Taaah, taaah, ta-taaah, taaah, ta-ta-tah. Finished them off~! What a scene~!"

"…Miss Kazuki Mizumura. Are you always singing that?"

There was one other, sitting on the downed carriage. A young boy, seemingly in his early teens. However, his grizzled hair imparted a bizarrely mature demeanor.

"Before inevitability, tears everythiiiiing away... Yup. Is it weird? You have a problem with me?"

"Oh no. I just thought you haven't changed very much from thirty years ago."

The two conversing people were still young. At the very least, that's how they looked on the outside.

"That goes for both of us, right? Visitors don't age, after all."

"…I suppose you're right. This is based off the research I've had done, but… An ancient royal family in this world also governed for far longer than one generation would conceivably be able to. It lends a lot of credibility to the story that all the first people in this world were visitors."

"Huh. So then, what's the reason why we don't age?"

"Hard to say. This is entirely speculation, but…it might, for example, be to make us leave an impact here."

The young boy locked his fingers together and looked toward the sky.

The blue-tinged large moon and the red small moon. Several circumstances were the same here; nevertheless, it looked quite different from the Beyond—a reality far off in the distance.

"Take you and me, for example—we may be deviants, and such humans are abandoned here in this world without anything...but to go from that point to leaving some sort of impact on society here takes even longer. Innate natural talent may rust and crumble away over such an extended time. Passing on techniques and knowledge onto others could end up only impacting one generation… But right now, neither you nor your age, nor your skills, at the very least, have withered at all, Kazuki."

"Hmmm. I don't really care, to be honest. So basically the whole reason we drifted over here is because the World-Maker or whatever is trying to change this place?"

"…The opposite. I think that it was originally to support and maintain this

world. In the beginning, there were only visitors. In order to take root and establish an ecosystem here, their original genetic life span wasn't enough—in other words, dragons and gigants are races that still possess long life spans because of the mutants they originated from…from the longevity of their visitor ancestors. At the very least, that's my hypothesis."

The "visitors" in this world were not only minia.

It wasn't hard to imagine that the dragons were the offspring of a large reptile deviant far in the distant past that had been sent to this world. It was similar for oozes, creatures that shouldn't, according to wisdom from the Beyond, have senses or any intellect, as well as mandrakes, plants that behaved like animals— everything must have originated from an original deviant of some kind.

The entities spoken of in the stories of the Beyond must have actually existed in the past, before being banished here.

In this world, which lacked an abundance of written documents or records, the mere search for the truths of history proved difficult.

"Anyway, you didn't come for a chat, right? Out all this way. Aren't you supposed to be busy working with those Old Kingdoms' guys? War's gonna break out there, too, you know. Heard that Particle Storm thing didn't even reach Aureatia, so you must have a rough time ahead of you, huh?"

"Once all the preparations are in place, there's nothing else I can do. Chatting is my job, after all."

"You're really impossible to trust. Is that a bit of a fatal flaw for your work?" "…You really think so?"

The young boy smiled, looking a bit troubled.

"Now then, let's say I've dropped by to check on how the situation's progressing, then. I need to integrate the period I'll be backing you up into my schedule, after all."

"Progressing? It's basically the same as always. Heck, these three weren't even that strong."

Her black boots kicked a corpse. The leather, fully immersed in the pool of blood, was discolored all the way up to the ankle.

"At this point, as far as mercs worth worrying about, Okafu's pretty down to just Milieu the Hemp Drop, right? Choke them out by blocking the flow of people and goods in and out of the city, and I'd say they have one small month left in them? Maybe less?"

"I'm not asking about the enemy's limits. Why, right now, it's amazing in and of itself that you've been able to keep up your activity like this without any

rest, Kazuki. Fighting nonstop for a whole big month already, six whole days. Even if someone had power rivaling an army, there aren't many who could fight continuously with unlimited concentration. That's why armies gather so many numbers together, to compensate for that with an increase in overall endurance and the number of eyes on watch."

"Really? I mean, that's what I'm managing to do right now."

The course she chose to capture Okafu wasn't a blitzkrieg, but a battle of attrition through unconventional combat. To be able to take that upon oneself with just individual fighting power held an unimaginable strategic mean, beyond just a prodigious strength in combat itself.

"…You know what happened with the New Principality of Lithia's downfall, yes? A mighty nation that established this world's only air force, erased in a single night."

"Hmph. That had to be Aureatia's doing, too, right? For a long time now, they've been getting up to shady nonsense without telling me anything."

"Suppose, if you will, they utilized outstanding individual fighting skills like yours when they conquered the New Principality, too? That'd mean they would have no need to operate a giant armed force and could conquer all the nations in the world. They could accomplish everything without needing funds for equipment or training, without making logistical considerations, and without anything being revealed to either the enemy or their own citizen, too. A war superiority that never would have existed in that other world."

"...And you're saying I have some relationship with Aureatia?"

"Just a few days prior, Aureatia devoted all their might to defending their homeland from the Particle Storm. Given the need to split their military forces up to also engage the Old Kingdoms' loyalists, if they did see a need to keep the Free City of Okafu in check with as little of a deployment as possible… If I were in their shoes, I'd send such an outstanding individual to do so."

"I've had enough of your baseless conjecture, thanks. Does that story of yours have anything to do with my job here?"

"Don't you think such outstanding individuals pose the same threat to Aureatia, too?"

"..."

"During the operation on the New Principality, the commander of their wyvern army, Regnejee the Wings of Sunset, died. Another visitor like us, Dakai the Magpie, too. Toroa the Awful, and the almost one-thousand-year-old Vikeon the Smoldering, both killed one right after another… I believe all these incidents

should be seen as having circumstances beyond my understanding of them. It's possible…these champions are purposefully being disposed of."

Aureatia, too, was utilizing outstanding individuals to suppress hostile forces. It was a type of warfare that made it possible to avoid consuming any of their own national strength.

From a more long-term perspective, they were thinking of erasing such threats from this world as well, as eventually they could easily threaten Aureatia's destruction. The Gray-Haired Child could understand that. What they wanted, what they feared.

"…For the ones who attacked the New Principality, the assault likely served as preliminaries to the Royal Games. The Royal Games themselves are festivities in order to establish Aureatia's hegemony, while simultaneously being used before they start as a means to send champions to the battlefield. You're planning on participating in the Royal Games, too, aren't you, Kazuki?"

"…"

"In other words, you, too, are in danger. Why would they send one person to conquer Okafu?"

"…I'm not alone, though. That's why I have you lot here backing me up, right?"

"No, I don't mean like that. The fact that you're here keeping up a fight solo like this… I'm wondering if, more so than Aureatia's military operation, you yourself have a goal you're after out here where Aureatia's eyes can't reach you."

"You little... Are you serious?"

She immediately aimed a gun barrel at the young boy. Kazuki wore a faint smile that was visible through her long hair.

"If by any chance…you're asking me something I'd find inconvenient, you best know I could shoot you dead right where you stand."

"If you have some goal you're hiding from Aureatia's side, I can work with you in secret."

With the gun barrel pointed at him, the boy raised his hands into the air. In this world where shura ran rampant, he didn't possess any fighting prowess whatsoever. He was a visitor who'd drifted to this world for a deviancy that existed beyond the battlefield.

"You have business with Mr. Morio Ariyama…rather, the self-proclaimed demon king Morio, yes? This is purely conjecture, but your condition for this operation was being present at the postwar negotiations. Without the backing of

Aureatia, it would be difficult to create an opportunity to have a confidential conversation with the ruler of a nation. As a fellow visitor, perhaps you have some business you wish to discuss with him?"

"Hmmmm. You're certainly well-informed, aren't you? Even you know that Morio's a visitor, too."

Self-proclaimed demon kings. Individuals with excessive systematic, or Word Arts, power. Mutants who try to establish a new species. Visitors who brought heretical political concepts to the world. The ruler of the Free City of Okafu was unquestionably one of such deviants.

"Okafu is supplying military power that includes provisioning weapons, along with peacetime drilling and training. Although they disguise themselves as a mercenary guild, their business structure is clearly that of a private military company. That alone is enough of a factor to surmise that Morio is a visitor."

"Well then, let's say my goal here's this—to bring you in, too, and have the three of us wax nostalgic over our far-off homeland. How's that sound?"

"Oh yes, when that time comes, I'd love an invite."

The boy looked up at the Okafu fortress with a face of mixed feelings.

"Do you truly plan to bring down Okafu through force of arms? You've demonstrated your strength to them plenty by now. There's a chance Mr. Morio would be receptive to bargaining with you individually, without waiting to reconcile peace with Aureatia."

"What a stupid idea. He'd never agree to those kinds of negotiations while he has the food stores prepared for a siege. Besides, aren't you the one developing new models of guns to kill people like me?"

"Originally, I was making them for you, Miss Kazuki. Reaching production stability was a difficult road."

"You get that I was being sarcastic with that, right?"

Part of Kazuki's mission included neutralizing Morio. Even if there was a path to avoid battle, her status as a champion came to her precisely because she continued to produce desired military achievements.

"Your goal is information, right? Mr. Morio's position allows him to pull and collect all the information from the mercenaries he has stationed across the world."

"That's right. But you wouldn't get anything out of it. Just looking for personal confirmation."

"That's…quite intriguing. All the more so if it's enough to pique your interests, Miss Kazuki."

"Yugo the Moving Decapitation Blade. Yukiharu the Twilight Diver. Morio the Sentinel. Hiroto the Paradox."

"..."

"Pfft. That's a good look for you. Those are the names of all the recent visitors who have shown up here. I'm sure you've picked up on it already. They all came from the same country we did."

It couldn't have been so in the past. Simply from the naming conventions for the different races and the cultural styles, there had to have been a large number of people arriving here not from their own homeland, but a cultural sphere far off to the west.

At some point, there was a large fluctuation. Kazuki was convinced of the truth behind the change. The mystery that the bulk of those who arrived in this world in its current state were unaware of.

"…True, there may be some bias at play. Though, rather than declare that based on the handful of known examples, I feel it's necessary to view things long-term and gather data."

"I have no idea how many hundreds of years long-term is for you."

Kazuki twirled the muskets in each of her hands, spinning herself around with them. Her coat and skirt fluttered with her.

"Taaah. Ta-taaah. Taah, taaah..."

"I take that to mean you don't plan on asking for my help yet, then?" "Beyond paying for your goods anyway. I'm a champion, aren't I? Even if

I'm just a plain old murderer."

She smiled as she danced in the light of the setting sun.

"Doing things alone is my personal policy. As a champion, I have to fulfill my obligations to this world, don't I?"

Nine years earlier, when the True Demon King still lived, there was a vivid legend formed amid that age of darkness.

A musketeer, touching down from a different world, deftly wielded a weapon that, at the time, no one had ever seen before, a "gun," and all by herself, liberated a northern city turned into a labyrinth by a self-proclaimed demon king, called the Great Ice Bastion.

The Free City of Okafu's assailant was a visitor. Kazuki the Black Tone.