Chapter 878: December 20th: A Curse for the Curious Heart, a Melody for the Longing Dream, Victory to the One Who Appears!
Author's Preface
I won't deny I was playing FF16, but it was the result of researching various consistency stuff! Please believe me! Look at these unfeigned, truthful eyes!! (Looking at a monitor displaying FF16)
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For example, Uomi Kei.
For example, Amelia Sullivan.
For example, Sylvia Goldberg.
For example, Yura, also known as Raid Boss-san.
For example,
For example,
For example───
Brawling, sword-fighting, and all sorts of other things. Did my experience encountering the top-of-the-top cultivate this within me...? There's something I can tell.
Within an Unnatural Non-Everyday Life, those who can remain unnaturally natural are strong, or rather, skilled.
That's precisely why, seeing Garunose readying his tower shield and one-handed axe as if it were the most natural thing in the world, I chose to exercise the utmost caution.
"............"
Honestly speaking about Garunose, since I didn't feel much interest in the Kingdom Turmoil event itself to begin with, I didn't particularly care who was strong or who sided with which faction.
Naturally, I didn't possess detailed information about the streamer gathering either. Garunose......... I feel like I might have seen him on video sites before, or maybe I haven't.
.........If I'm going to take him on seriously, I'll need some preparation, huh.
"...Sorry, Challenger-shi, but do you mind if I take a quick break?"
"...I don't mind. You've been fighting match after match, after all."
How generous of him. Though since he's probably the one who sent those Four Inner Circle Members my way, I feel like there's no need to be grateful.
Leaping up to Brunbas's deck, I entered the ship, quickly stashed my equipment into Inventoria, and what I had on hand was: a single bottle.
The "Scar" possesses the effect of repelling most magical interference. Regardless of whether it's a buff or debuff, it repels even friendly healing magic, and if it's interference that touches the Scar, even the miasma filling an area is included in its scope.
Given that it doesn't nullify attack magic, it doesn't guarantee complete invulnerability to magic, and if an attack hits a part without a Scar... like the head or waist, it will take effect.
Now, while that's important, that's not the point here. What's important right now are three things, just three.
・Since I'm keeping a person waiting, I need to die swiftly.
・A magical cause is the fastest way to die swiftly.
・I need a cause of death that exploits a loophole in the rules of the Kingdom Turmoil.
How do I clear these three conditions? The answer is simple; the solution to the first and second points can be solved with "this."
"Retribution Straw Doll... Destined to be wasted, this feels like even more of a waste than a pasta knife."
I pull out a straw doll that severely clashes with this fantasy world of swords, magic, and the occasional science, squishing both fingers deep into the straw doll's belly. The nail driven into its unnaturally swollen stomach, what on earth is it actually impaling...?
Dying efficiently. That's a skill you don't need in real life, where you've only got one life left on the counter. But in a game, it's justified under the name of efficiency, and sometimes even encouraged.
Up until now, I could die quickly and painlessly by casually using Levin Trigger・Hazard, waiting a few seconds, and then bashing my head against a wall twice... but there's no point asking for what I don't have. So, what I prepared was this.
───Do not reveal the contents of the Retribution Straw Doll.
Pencilgon merely smirked with a grin and refused to tell me what happens if you reveal it. She's the type who, among those who "know but won't tell," belongs to the "I experienced it too, so you should do it as well" category. It's not for nothing that she deals with scoundrels, and if I were in the same position, I'd probably wear a similar expression.
And the third point. In the Kingdom Turmoil event, players who die in battle during the fight are transported to the headquarters base... in the case of the Former King's faction, Thirdrema.
However, gamers aren't the kind of living organisms that go, 'Oh, I see, if I can return to the main base, then I can fight with all my might! I'll do my best!'
The rule presented by the management was "If you are killed during the event, you return to the main base."
How far does this definition of "was killed" extend? What if you're slashed by an ally? Is self-destruction excluded from "was killed"? What if you die on the New Continent after joining a faction? What if you're killed by an enemy faction player on the New Continent? Is seppuku honorable?
Gamers being drawn to bugs, secret techniques, and glitches is an "ecological trait" that has been neither improved nor resolved from the days of pixel art games to the present. If there's a paper with rules written on it, they look at the back; if there's a loophole, they exploit it mercilessly.
Thus, after undergoing countless pointless deaths, players derived a single conclusion.
"A death 'completely unrelated to the war'! And a 'Bed' that isn't a city facility... If we have these two!!"
───For instance, yes, just like accidentally destroying a shrine in a village with a mysterious, dark custom.
While accidentally looking inside the Retribution Straw Doll, having my face grabbed by a pitch-black hand emerging from within, listening to the bone-crunching sound of my skull shattering while being dragged into the doll's belly, which clearly wasn't big enough to fit a human head, gyaaaaaaaahhh───...!
How polite of it to leave me with no sensation below the neck for a good few seconds. No, this horror presentation is way too unnecessarily elaborate!!
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A melody shakes the ancient Canyon of Ancient Souls. At the center of that sound source, on the stage of the deck, a doll modeled after a woman sings.
『───Small fish born in the endless Universe, I yearn for the sea.
Hey, did you know? The real sea is sandwiched between the sky and the earth.
That's why inside the belly of a giant fish, I swim through the Universe.
I'm not scared, my head is filled with dreams of the sea.
I'm not scared, with a burning heart inside the Fish Tank.
A small gill-breathing fish dreams of poking its face above the water's surface anyway.
My breath is already choking, and I dream a dream where I can't breathe───』
An interlude. The Doll's fingers strum a fierce melody on the electric guitar, and the speakers playing the missing drum and bass melodies express that turbulent surge through light effects and a rhythm that vibrates the air.
───.........♪
And when the doll's fingers strummed the final melody...
──────!!!!!!!
A massive cheer that threatened to collapse the canyon, accompanied by yellow screams [*1], burst forth.
It all started a few minutes ago. Ever since the original Host of this venue disappeared saying, "I'm going to prepare."
Standing atop a ship anchored at the bottom of the canyon, the maid-outfit doll vanished once, and when she reappeared on the deck... she murmured softly.
"Proposal: Shall I sing a song?"
That was not a command from her contractor, but a decision made of her own volition.
Precisely because she sensed what her Contractor wanted to do, she vibrated her throat intending to buy a few minutes... no, even several tens of minutes.
Saina, whose sensors built into her Conquista Doll detected that the audience was desiring the next song, placed her fingers on the electric guitar to play the Accompaniment for the next song───
It happened right then.
"It's time for the 'otaki-age' [*2], you know."
A voice bound by contract and trust that could never be mistaken, yet distinctly different from before.
Looking back, there was a straw doll dancing in mid-air and............ a monstrous warrior.
"WA!!!!!!!"
If music, voices, and sounds becoming power are what makes an idol, then does that mean the figure in Saina's line of sight, spitting flames with a voice of tearing silk, is also an idol?
Gou! A flame burning upward from below swallowed the straw doll, vanishing it in an instant into heat and red flickers............ Having finished the disposal, the monstrous warrior turned his gaze toward Saina. Their number far exceeded just two, a vast multitude.
"I could hear you from inside the ship, but......... are you planning to continue buying time?"
"Affirmative: Second Humanity are an ecological species that takes time to recover their footing after restructuring. This is an Emergency Intelligence Judgment."
"Well, I'm grateful, and it seems like it really would buy time, but......... well, I'm keeping a specific person waiting this time. Just one song is enough. Thanks, Intelligence."
"Acknowledged: Then, Contractor... good luck in battle."
The reply was not in words, but a silent raised fist. The strength in the clenching of that fist was a sign of certain victory... at least, that is what the doll Considers.
◇◇
The audience demanding the next song, or an encore, saw it leap down from that absurdly bizarre ship adorned with crystal wings. Not the maid-outfit woman who had been strumming a guitar with her foot set upon the deck, upon the spear-like bow.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Could that really be called a human?
".........You've undergone quite a transformation. To the point where your gender doesn't even bother me anymore."
"It's a battle style being shown for the first time in Japan, looks good on me, right?"
It was likely modeled after a bird... but calling it a bird would be far too monstrous. A fiery bird mask covered everything from the upper jaw up. Within the flames swaying in the blowing wind, fire like eyes, too numerous to count on four or five fingers, glared down at the warrior with the Tower Shield. The opponent felt that the swaying fire moved as if spheres were rolling around.
In contrast to the upper jaw modeled after a beak, the lower jaw was different. It was likely something completely separate from the mask covering the face, a bony lower jaw lined with the fangs of a carnivore... yes, like a creature that had long since disappeared through death in the real world, a creature counted among the very symbols of that era.
If you only looked at the top, it was an extreme monster that could barely be called a "bird," but the sight of it moving the lower jaw of a terrifying dragon to speak exuded an undeniable sense of wrongness. A sacrilegious wrongness, as if different creatures had been forcibly stitched together.
"Though with the enemy general charging all the way to the front line, I'd like to do an interview, but..."
Swaying smoothly was a bone. But it was a tail that swayed with the fluid movement of a streamlined curve, even while making its numerous joints creak and snap. A tail that humans should have lost......... and a dragon's tail stripped of flesh and blood, at that. Swaying gently and smoothly, it remained calm as if reflecting its owner's emotions.
"How about we get to it?"
".........I'm the one who wants to ask the questions here, though."
"Nice," said it, spreading its hands and feet. There lay the claws of a dragon, sharpened by wild, majestic nature.
Was that really a human? Yet the name floating above its head was identical to that of the girl who, until moments ago, had displayed martial prowess and violence, continuously stacking victories.
What was that? What happened to make it like that? How do you even end up like that? Amidst the swirling questions and astonishment, the word that popped into the minds of almost the entire crowd showed a bizarre consensus.
(((((Change him back)))))
Author's Afterword
By fulfilling the conditions of "a cause of death completely uninvolved with the Kingdom Turmoil event (in short, a state where you are neither perpetrator nor victim, and that death exerts no tactical or strategic influence on the surroundings)" and "not utilizing the facilities of a city participating in the war," one can avoid respawning at the faction's main headquarters. Upon learning this, Pencilgon clicked her tongue loudly.
"If we can fake respawns with tents, we could've done infinite suicide attacks......... Well, if we can't, we can't. Let me attack while cherishing my life, feeling like I'll blow myself up if I'm backed into a corner."
Judicially, things like dying on the roadside or dying in the wilderness apply. For example, neglecting HP loss from hunger by failing to restore stamina for a long time until HP reaches zero; drinking medicine that has a chance of inflicting poison instead of restoring HP and letting HP hit zero without curing it; or......... ripping open the stomach of a suspicious straw doll while shouting "Wheee! Let me expose what's inside!" only to see something you shouldn't have, getting your neck twisted off, and the like.
・『Hold Your Breath, Sky-ward』
Lyrics & Composition: Sakishima Elma
A solo track by Sakishima Elma that sings of a yearning longing not for outer space, nor for the makeshift Sea recreated inside a spaceship, but for the earth, the sea, and the sky looked up to from there.
In the past, aboard the Bahamut as it continued its voyage in search of new lands, content that excessively stoked "Nostalgia" was strictly regulated by law, with severe penalties imposed on violators.
Initially, the agency, which had planned to have her sing mostly romantic ballads, was wide-eyed with shock when Sakishima Elma submitted this track and rejected it. However, it became an infamous song when Sakishima Elma recklessly started singing it unannounced at a solo concert days later.
Fortunately or unfortunately, a habitable planet was discovered at that exact timing, leading the government of the era to judge that it could instead be utilized for propaganda, letting her off without punishment. Had the timing been slightly earlier, Sakishima Elma's name would have been buried in history as a criminal rather than an idol.
Thereafter, Sakishima Elma released numerous famous tracks along the lines of "Life on a spaceship is bullshit, if I'm going to die, let it be amidst the sky, the earth, and the sea─── (Summary)," but in the end, she never stepped foot on real soil herself.
───Excerpt from Andrew Jitterdoll's "Sternenblume, Its History", Volume 32: "Unending Cry of the Soul"
A wildly radical rock-and-roller wearing the skin of a cool idol. A woman who flipped the bird to infinite outer space and kept reaching her hands out toward an unseen land. That is the Singer known as Sakishima Elma.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Yellow screams (黄色い悲鳴): A Japanese idiom referring to the high-pitched, excited squeals and cheers typically made by fans (e.g., fangirls screaming for an idol).
- [2] Otaki-age (お焚き上げ): A traditional Japanese Shinto/Buddhist ritual where old charms, dolls, or items with spiritual significance are respectfully burned in a ceremonial fire to return their spirits to heaven. Sunraku is using it as a morbid joke for burning a cursed straw doll.
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