Episode 1: Surely, It'll Be Fun.
* * *
I — Kotoyorozu Kotoha — was hiding in the shadows of Azure Academy.
"Did you find them?!"
"Not over here! They must be that way!"
"Ohhh, we absolutely cannot let Kotoha-senpai escape!"
The students of Azure Academy were chasing me as one united pack. Among them was a certain twintailed first-year middle schooler — Koshiba Nyao. I was definitely going to smack her later.
"Hehe, this is kinda fun, isn't it!"
"...Now's not the time for fun!"
Behind me stood a girl wearing an oversized trench coat and sunglasses, with a hat pulled low over her eyes. She seemed to find the whole situation hilarious, giggling away.
"Crap. The hallway to the student council room is blocked off. ...They've got the key points inside the academy covered too."
"Wow, that's amazing. You can tell without even looking, Kotoha. Is that the future sight? The Apocalypse thingy?"
The students of Azure Academy were hunting us down with flared nostrils. My mission was simple: get this girl to the student council room without letting that mob get their hands on her.
"No choice, then. Let's take an alternate route to the student council room."
"Aye aye, Captain!"
The girl gave an adorable salute. For a split second, I nearly faltered at that smile of hers — radiant as a gemstone — but I held firm. ...I wasn't like those savages out there.
"Ah! There they are! It's mALEEa-sama! Please shake our hands!"
"Tch, they found us already!"
I grabbed the hand of Fructus's most famous songstress — mALEEa — and broke into a run.
"We're running! Can you keep up?!"
"Heh, of course! I'm a top idol, you know! I've done plenty of running drills!"
mALEEa and I sprinted out of Azure Academy at full speed.
"Wait! Kotohaaa!"
"We're not letting you escape! Shamshir!!"
Chasing us was a mob of mALEEa's fanatical fans, eyes bloodshot. They had long since devolved into a rabble, having thrown their humanity and common sense into the gutter. No way I was handing this girl over to them.
(... Seriously, how the hell did things end up like this?!)
* * *
The aftermath of the assassination attempt on Koito Hikari by Corporations security captain Caitlin Ann Austin had been an absolute mess.
The mastermind of the incident, Captain Caitlin, had broken out of prison and was now whereabouts unknown. Student council president Amelia McVeer was leading a search effort, but there was no sign of finding her.
"I'm sooo sorry for causing all this trouble, Elif-chan!"
The meeting between Elif Anatolia and Amelia had taken place just the other day. Corporations was treating the incident as an act of terrorism, but from Azure Academy's perspective, it could just as well be considered an act of war. They had nearly assassinated Koito Hikari, Azure Academy's strongest fighter. The responsibility was enormous.
"I totally don't mind. ...Well, I can't really say that. But we both know that apologies and forgiveness are meaningless here. So let me take this opportunity to squeeze you. Hard."
"Ahaha... yeah, I figured as much."
And so, Azure Academy hit Corporations with a massive reparations demand. Being 100% in the wrong, Corporations had no choice but to swallow every condition. They demanded an enormous sum in reparations, forced the disclosure of technology, and extracted the transfer of exclusive rights to multiple Apocalypses. True to the name "barbarians in lab coats," they plundered everything they could get their hands on.
"That's all. Those are my conditions."
"Eeeek! Elif-chan, you meanie! You seriously went all out with those demands!"
Kotoyorozu Kotoha had also been present at the meeting between the two student council presidents. With his ability to read minds, he was a valued asset at occasions like these. Watching Elif negotiate, Kotoha thought: What a demon.
"Do my Wings have anything to add?"
Elif looked at Koito and Von Simon, who had been sitting in on the meeting. Von answered first.
"No. I believe this is right at the threshold of what won't crack the bond between our academies."
"You think so?! Because my side of the crack is totally shattered already!"
Ignoring the half-crying President Amelia, Koito spoke up.
"Azure Academy is short on manpower. Don't you want to poach some talented students?"
"Eek! That's not poaching, that's hostage-taking!"
Gunscars and other special abilities were natural resources heavily dependent on individual Yearning. Because of this, the temporary transfer of students with particularly important abilities was not uncommon in negotiations like these.
"I know! Let's take mALEEa-chan."
Koito proposed it on nothing more than a whim. During the recent duel with Caitlin in the wasteland, mALEEa's Half-Wing "Invincible Princess (Princess Brave!)" had been a huge asset.
Amelia's face went pale as she screamed.
"No no no! mALEEa-chan's party-wide buff is insanely powerful — her concerts boost academy GDP by 0.02 percent! There's absolutely no way I'm handing her over—"
Elif Anatolia smiled.
"Hand. Her. Over."
"GYAAAAAAAH!"
* * *
And so, the legendary songstress mALEEa came to belong to Azure Academy for one year.
"That said, publicly this will be framed as a voluntary study abroad. We'll report it as mALEEa's own decision."
A few days later, Kotoha heard this from Elif and felt his spirits sink.
"Her first day is going to cause an unbelievable commotion. Would you be so kind as to escort her from her fanatical fans to the student council room? You're good at handling people problems, aren't you?"
And that was how he ended up on mALEEa escort duty.
* * *
(There's no way it'd be this bad?!)
Dozens of students chased us as we sprinted toward Azure Academy's main gate. Every single one of them was a battle-hardened agent, a fanatical mALEEa devotee, and uniformly lacking in respect for the law — so they were firing Gunscars without a shred of hesitation.
"Ahahaha. What a fun school!"
"Glad you're enjoying yourself, but seriously?!"
Since they were mALEEa's fans, they had zero intention of hurting her. However, they saw me, the escort, as nothing but an obstacle to be eliminated first.
"Take this! 'Treacherous Flash (Turkish Delight)'!"
I dodged the precisely aimed shot by a hair, having predicted it just in time.
"Gah! Hey you, you actually aimed to hit me just now, didn't you?!"
"My Gunscar has no lethal capabilities! It just remodels your brain a little."
"Remodels my brain? What, like brainwashing?"
"Nah, remodeling."
Terrifying. It was only a matter of time before they caught us.
(Dammit, at this rate—)
"— The hell are these people doing. Seriously. Huh?"
An angry maid in a frilly tracksuit dropped from the sky, vein pulsing on her forehead.
"Luna-san!"
"Leave this to me, Master-chan. — And that's totally a death flag, lol."
She touched down on the grounds with flair and struck an elegant pose. Fine threads already extended from both her wrists. My most dependable servant in the world was quietly furious behind a cool expression.
"Gyah!"
The charging mob slammed into an invisible wall — a barrier of threads, woven by Luna-san.
"Okay, everyone who just fired at my master, raise your hand. ...Actually, don't bother, I already remember your faces. I'm gonna wreck you now. No objections accepted, obviously. Hey. You."
Thanks to Luna-san, we managed to escape from the academy. Behind us, she shouted:
"Go, hurry! I can't hold this forever!"
"Thank you! ...Let's go, mALEEa-san!"
"Okay, Kotoha!"
I gripped mALEEa's hand tightly so we wouldn't get separated, and broke into a full sprint.
"...Wait, are they holding hands over there? Huh, what's that about. ...No, that's definitely something? Big sis here thinks that's, like, not okay?! Right, Master-chan?! HEY!!"
I thought I heard someone yelling, but this was no time for that.
* * *
"Wooow, this is amaazing!"
mALEEa bounced up and down as she gazed across the vibrant, colorful bazaar.
"There are a lot of eyes around here too, so we should keep moving—"
"That looks delicious! Mister, one please!"
While I was busy scanning for threats, mALEEa had gone ahead and ordered a kunefe — a street sweet made with shredded pastry wrapped around cheese, topped with syrup and nuts.
"Mmm! So melty and gooey!"
"H-Hey... if you're too loud, people will figure out who you are!"
"Oh come on, don't be like that. Here, Kotoha, say ahh~♡"
Before I could protest, a fork was shoved into my mouth. A gentle sweetness and the crunch of crispy cheese spread across my tongue. ...Well, of course something like this would be good.
"I've always wanted to come here. The District 12 bazaar! I love lively places."
She laughed, danced a little step, and strolled around humming to herself.
(... She really does make a picture.)
The trench coat and hat concealed her true appearance, but the sparkle in her eyes and the faint glimpse of rainbow hair let her overwhelming aura leak through.
"Back when I was in District 6, my manager and bodyguards were always right there, so I never got to just wander around like this."
"...That so?"
"Yeah. And all my friends were always busy too. Gray-chan was probably the only one who came to hang out a lot. ...Cait used to send me cards pretty often too, but—"
Suddenly, a shadow passed over those jewel-like eyes.
"...Do you feel lonely?"
The words slipped out before I could think. After all, mALEEa had left her home at Corporations to come to Azure Academy. She looked startled for a moment, then gave a small smile.
"Yeah, a little. But this was the right call. We need to change."
"...Change?"
"Up until now, all we did was follow Cait's lead. Because she was worth following. She was serious to a fault — the kind of person who'd shackle herself with her own rules."
I could somehow understand that feeling — yearning for someone's brilliance, wanting to chase after it. Just like how I once felt about the Black Demon Lord.
"When Cait was arrested, I thought — what do I do with my life now? It wasn't like we had anywhere we wanted to go anymore."
"..."
"But then, that girl. She broke out. Heh. You gotta laugh, right? The duty-obsessed Cait? The person who lived on the sting of her own guilt? She broke free of her cage — and flew off somewhere on those wings of hers."
mALEEa wore a smile of genuine, heartfelt joy.
"So we have to fly too. On our own wings. On our own feet. The scarlet flame who used to guide us is gone now. That's why — I'm actually really enjoying this adventure."
She must have had so many stories in her past. But those stories would probably never be told to me. And I didn't mind that opacity in people. I actually kind of liked it.
"Since I'm studying abroad, there's so much I wanna do! I wanna eat delicious things, I wanna see beautiful things. And — I wanna... make some friends..."
"Ha. There've gotta be tons of people who'd want to be your friend."
"R-Really?"
She let her gaze wander, looking a bit embarrassed, then took a bite of her kunefe.
"...Then... does that include... you, Kotoha...?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to be my friend?"
I could tell she was mustering up the courage to say it, and that struck me as strange. She was one of the world's top idols. And yet, she was just like any normal girl.
"Of course!"
I laughed, genuinely and without pretense.
"I'm the 'barely any friends' type, so I'm always taking applications for a best friend."
"Oh? ...Is that so? Heh. Yay. But I'm the type who doesn't want friends to use formal speech with me."
She laughed it off as a joke, but there was still a hint of shyness. ...Huh, she really was just a normal girl. That made me kind of happy, somehow.
"Cool. Let's get along from here on out. Mari..."
— Actually, calling her by name in this crowd was probably a bad idea.
"...Mari-chan?"
"—!"
When I called her that, her eyes went wide. Then:
"I love it! I'm a huge fan of special nicknames!"
She seemed to like it, beaming with a bashful grin.
"Alright, we should get going. President Elif is waiting at the student council room."
"Aww, come on. Let's look around a little more. I'm the type who wants friends to indulge my whims."
"And I'm the type who prioritizes the mission over friendship."
"What matters more, work or me?!"
Let's come back another time. We'll have plenty of chances to hang out. I was about to say something like that. But before the words could take shape, my eyes caught it first.
"...Huh?"
For a moment, I had almost forgotten. That we were the Apocalypse Stagnation Committee. That we weren't the kind of people who could get away with something as soft as "next time."
"What the hell is that?"
A girl was falling from the sky.
At first glance, she looked like any ordinary girl. Her face was a mess of tears, and she was screaming something desperately. But the distance was too great, her voice swallowed by the wind.
Please get awaaay!!
Please, I'm begging you! Get away from meee!!
She was screaming with everything she had, plummeting from high above at terrifying speed without a single thought for herself. For an instant, I started to run toward her, to catch her — then slammed on the brakes.
You'll die! You'll be killed! I'm a "detective"!!
So please, don't come near me!!
Her desperate, screaming heart was reaching me and me alone. She was certain her own body would be fine. And still she kept screaming for people to get away. Her voice reached no one's ears but mine —
"Everyone!! Run — get out of heeere!!"
— I was the only one who understood how serious this was.
"...Huh? Kotoha...?"
"Run! Run! Ruuuun!! This place is about to become a nightmare...!"
People on the street stopped at my screams. But before that could matter, they had already noticed the girl falling from the sky. The area erupted into chaos.
"Ruuuuuuun!"
I screamed.
"Don't come clooooose!!"
The girl screamed. But it was all too sudden, and the crowd stood frozen in shock. At meteor-like speed, she crashed into the plaza.
"...This is bad."
In the broad plaza with its fountain, the crying girl touched down — shattering the brick road to pieces, bursting water pipes in every direction.
"Are you okay?! Are you hur—"
mALEEa tried to approach her. I grabbed her hand hard.
"— Don't go near her!!"
mALEEa's eyes went wide. In that instant, blood spatter dyed the tips of her rainbow hair.
"...Wha?"
Right near where the girl had landed, a woman was killing a man. Both middle-aged. The woman's eyes were bloodshot, stained with hatred. The man just stood there, completely bewildered.
"Please... don't come near me... I'm a 'detective'..."
Drenched by the water raining down from the burst pipes, the girl who called herself a detective screamed.
Five seconds later, the massacre began. She had known it would.
"We're running, Mari-chan...! This place is about to—!!"
And then it started. One man strangled a child beside him to death. The child's friend slit the throat of a completely unrelated old man. The old man's son began killing his own wife.
"— This place is about to become a real, actual hell!"
I screamed. The detective was crying. People started killing each other. The sky stayed bright and blue regardless.
* * *
— Emergency! Emergency! A piercing alert blared through Azure Academy.
"Hm?"
Elif Anatolia had been drinking tea in the student council room. She noticed the alarm and set her cup down. It was a Level 5 or higher alert — a warning that put the entire academy on high alert.
"Hello, it's me. What happened?"
Elif called the internal line for Azure Academy's campus police — the Arboreal Knights.
"There's been an intrusion at the bazaar from a hostile organization! It's likely a 'detective'!"
"Wh—?! A detective — from the Detective Association?!"
Amelia, who rarely raised her voice, went pale and shot to her feet. Von Simon, who happened to be present, also leapt up and began issuing orders to his subordinates.
"The intruder count is one! But casualties are already in the dozens!"
"...I see. It's likely not an act of invasion, but —"
— This was a "detective" they were dealing with. Good intentions or bad were irrelevant. These were anomalous beings who had strayed far beyond the principles of the world, barely maintaining human shape. In some ways, they were worse than the Apocalypse itself.
"Arboreal Knights, deploy in full force to suppress the situation. We'll send backup from here as well."
The backup was the Blank Makers Von Simon was almost certainly already arranging. They had less combat power than the Arboreal Knights, but their Anti-Reality response capability was high.
"...Hm? Detective Association? What's that?"
Elif couldn't help feeling momentarily exasperated at Hikari, who somehow knew nothing about this either.
"It's an extra-dimensional organization that protects 'detectives' across countless dimensions and pursues the truth."
Among the many Anti-Reality organizations, few had a reputation as infamous as the Detective Association.
"...Detectives? Protect them from what? They're everywhere, aren't they?"
"The detectives I'm talking about aren't a profession. They're a species. Intelligent lifeforms possessing special properties called 'detective abilities.' A top-class detective can easily destroy an entire galaxy."
"Huh. Want me to go out there?"
"Absolutely not. Even you would likely be affected by a detective ability."
"Detective abilities" were among the most ancient laws. Even Hikari, with her extraordinary resistance to Anti-Reality, couldn't be guaranteed safe.
"All we can do right now is trust the people on the ground."
* * *
"— What is this, then."
What Nguyen Bao Lan, Vice-Commander of the Arboreal Knights, found when she arrived on scene was pure hell.
"GYAAAAAAH!! Stop it! Please! I'm sorry! I'm sorryyy!"
"It's YOUR fault!! This is all YOUR fault!!"
"Ahh... death... this is my... death...!"
Bodies everywhere, the living drenched in their blood. Death and murder filled the air. The people of the bazaar had been killing each other. No — that wasn't quite right.
(They're not killing each other, are they? It's all one-sided — just killing.)
There were exactly equal numbers of "murderers" and "victims." Each was paired off, divided into killer and killed. And each murder was carried out without resistance, swiftly completed.
(So that screaming girl is the detective? And this is her — detective ability!)
"Please! Don't come near me! Don't let anyone approach them!"
* * *
[D-1293: "Detective of Binding Chains"]
- Detective Rank: C (Caution-level)
- Detective Ability: Designates any individual within a 10m radius as either "murderer" or "victim." Through causal intervention, the "murderer" develops a powerful motive to kill the "victim." The level of causal intervention is low, limited to distorting the target's memories.
* * *
Nguyen Bao Lan swept her curly black hair aside, equipped her Gunscar, and leapt from the bazaar rooftop. For someone whose body had passed fifty, it was hard work — but:
"— Don't move!"
She leveled her gun at the crying detective girl.
"...N-no... that's why... don't come near me...!"
"...Relax! This old lady isn't coming any closer. What's your purpose here?"
Nguyen glanced at the blood-soaked plaza and couldn't help grinding her teeth. Less than ten minutes had passed since the incident began, and the damage was already catastrophic.
"I-I need to talk! To the people at Azure Academy! To Elif Anatolia!"
"...The president?"
"A crisis is coming to the universe! Countless people are going to die! I came to warn you!"
(Countless people are going to die, she says?)
That was now. Right here, right now. A familiar food stall owner had been stabbed to death by his own daughter. The fountain she used to play around as a child was stained crimson. Even at her feet, corpses still twitched.
"Run! You too! My ability doesn't just center on me! Those bodies too —!"
The detective screamed. In that instant, Nguyen felt a terrifying presence behind her.
"It's YOUR fault!! This is all YOUR FAAAULT!!"
It was a dark-complexioned man in a fine suit. He gripped an iron pipe, eyes bloodshot, staring at Nguyen. With a whoosh of displaced air, he swung to crush her skull.
(This man — the brother of the girl I accidentally killed on a mission years ago?!)
A memory that didn't exist flashed through Nguyen's mind. It was a facet of the Detective of Binding Chains' detective ability — the nature of causal intervention. It directly rewrote Nguyen's past, making everything add up.
"— So what? Mission comes first. Regret is no excuse."
Nguyen had already fired a bullet behind her. It struck the man in the chest — but no blood flowed. Instead, his movements became absurdly slow, like a mime in slow motion.
* * *
[Compressed Victory (Win Zip)] [Gunscar]
A Gunscar that "compresses time." It can compress a target's own time to speed up their actions, or compress the time flowing around a target to slow them down. Nguyen Bao Lan's actual age exceeds 200, but this ability maintains her body at approximately age 50.
* * *
The man, his timeflow compressed, had become relatively slow.
"So then? What should this old lady and her friends do?"
Nguyen asked as if nothing had happened. The detective flinched for a moment, then:
"M-my detective ability is indiscriminate and limitless! Please, quarantine the afflicted!"
Nguyen nodded — but she already understood, painfully well, that this was going to be difficult.
"Somebody, HELP MEEE!!"
"I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do! No matter what it costs! I WILL kill you!"
The bazaar had descended into total panic. People were running, falling, killing. In the few minutes it would take to summon students with Gunscars capable of quarantine, even more would die.
(I have to calm these people down somehow —)
Nguyen racked her brain, cold sweat running down her face.
"— If tomorrow is sunny... ♪"
It was a melody that washed the soul clean.
"Is that... no way... mALEEa?!"
The crowd screamed. Nguyen looked up. A girl radiating an overwhelming aura stood on the rooftop, clutching a rainbow-colored microphone. It carried her voice in a tone more beautiful than any sound system in the world.
"Let's go to the sea together. At the water's edge. Dipping our ankles in. Just the two of us... ♪"
The vibrations of her singing voice resonated directly with the heart. It was like having kindness and warmth poured straight into your veins — the overwhelming rush of comfort you felt when your mother held you close.
"...Wow..."
The people who had been turned into "murderers" by the detective ability stood slack-jawed, enraptured by her singing. Some, seized by violent impulses one moment and embraced by gentleness the next, broke down in tears.
(What in the world...! Even the people who were panicking are standing there, stunned —)
Everyone was transfixed by the songstress's music.
"Nguyen-senpai! Now's our chance!"
The one who called out to Nguyen — who had found herself lost in the music — was a boy.
"You're... Kotoyorozu Kotoha, if I'm not mistaken? Hikari's kid."
"Yes! Please, call for backup while we can!"
Nguyen contacted her comrades. By chance, a girl with the ability called "Shamshir" was nearby and on her way. She could easily quarantine the people afflicted by the detective ability.
(Well now... this is somethin'.)
The bazaar should have been drenched in fresh blood, people collapsed everywhere, ruled by death and violence.
"— It'll be fun. I'm sure it'll be fun... ♪"
But the only thing that mattered was the seven-colored radiance the singer carried.
(So this is — the world's greatest songstress.)
Nguyen, too, closed her eyes and began to listen to that beautiful singing voice.