Perhaps you could call it an aerial battle.
He launched a surprise attack on Sirius, who had taken to the heights with a single leap. Reinhard chased after the figure he'd kicked skyward, hooking his toes once more onto the white ledge of the Clocktower, and with nothing more than a slight bend and extension of his knees, shot through the air like a bullet.
"Hee hee hee! Oh, how overwhelming!"
Seeing the crimson hero hurtling toward her, Sirius let out a voice dyed in ecstasy and swung her arms. The groaning sound that cleaved through the wind came from the iron chains coiled many times over around her wrists.
The chains could serve as both a bludgeoning weapon while coiled and a whip-like weapon when unfurled—and it was their appearance and the sheer violence of their sound, rather than any practical convenience, that betrayed how far their wielder strayed from ordinary sense in choosing them as her weapon of choice.
The iron serpent that had surely tasted the blood of more than several people by now screamed its approval as it pierced through the wind, ready to crush its prey in its iron jaws as it always did.
But the gunmetal snake moving at near-sonic speeds could not have known— —That in this world, there existed people who were off the norm in an entirely different way from the likes of Sirius.
"Chains, huh. Troublesome."
The Sword Saint muttered with a furrowed brow, facing the chain strike that left the sound itself behind.
In the midst of high-speed combat, he uttered those words with the casual air of someone muttering a petty complaint during an ordinary moment.
"Hee hee hee!"
Sirius exhaled, her breath heavy with heat, spilling out as laughter.
She had no choice but to laugh. Whether that smile of Sirius's was born of desperation or genuine amusement, Subaru couldn't tell—but everyone watching, both Subaru and the crowd gathered around him, understood one thing.
That even if it hadn't been Sirius, they would have had no choice but to laugh.
"————"
Reinhard pursued Sirius skyward with a leap from directly below.
Aimed squarely at him, Sirius brought both chains crashing down without missing. Against the high-speed strike, Reinhard did not reach for the hilt of the sword at his waist.
If what he'd heard before was true, it wasn't that he chose not to draw his sword—he couldn't. The holy sword Reinhard possessed could only be drawn against a worthy opponent.
Then he would face that terrifying aberrant with bare hands. Even Reinhard would surely struggle—so one wanted to believe, because it meant Reinhard could still be treated as falling within the bounds of humanity.
If so, that trust was about to be shattered.
The second chain strike aimed at Reinhard was deflected with a high-pitched clang.
The shockwave and shower of sparks that erupted were so violent that Subaru and the others below mistook them for a streak of lightning.
That feat of speed was proof that Reinhard was a being who transcended human knowledge.
Against the first chain strike, Reinhard blocked it by pressing the sole of his right foot against the tip.
Had he merely blocked the attack, it would have been surprising but not laughable. What went beyond surprise was what came immediately after—Reinhard caught the chain by twirling his ankle around it, binding it at his will.
In short, Reinhard had intercepted the incoming chain with his right foot, wrapped it around that foot to arm himself on the spot, and then used that same chain to deflect the second strike that followed.
All within the span of a split second—a battle exchanged in the space between heartbeats.
Of course, not every one of the ordinary people present—Subaru included—could follow it with their eyes. A handful of martial artists grasped the wild feat, and only after the follow-up exchange did most of the others finally catch on.
The moment they understood, what visited them was the urge to laugh. They exhaled, shoulders going limp. There had never been a stronger feeling of thankfulness that he was on their side. If he'd been an enemy, it wouldn't have been just their shoulders that went limp—it would have been their knees and bladders too.
"Heh heh, hee hee hee! Ahahaha, hee hee hee hee!!"
Laughing out loud, Sirius whipped her right arm around like a tornado.
With the chain on her left arm taken by Reinhard, all the aberrant could do was strike with her right. The groaning gunmetal serpent tore through the sky in every direction, but every strike was knocked down by the chain wrapped around Reinhard's right foot, erupting in high-pitched sounds and sparks.
Each collision produced a small-scale firework display against the blue sky, and in the midday plaza, the sight unfolded of sounds like instruments being played and red and yellow flames dancing through the air.
Strike after strike, yet between them the distance between Reinhard and Sirius continued to narrow. And when those strikes began to truly reach close range— "To think it'd come this far! You're too amazing!"
"Your skill is well-honed. That makes it all the more regrettable that you put it to evil use."
In the instant they crossed paths, the two exchanged words and launched a strike.
Reinhard pulled back his right foot and instead thrust out a left knife-hand with fingers aligned. Sirius met it head-on, swinging her arm down with extra force as the rippling chain bared its fangs.
The sight of a supposedly unbreakable steel object being severed by a mere hand strike was nothing short of beautiful.
Subaru had once seen a party trick where someone split a disposable chopstick using its own wrapper. Reinhard, he imagined, could cut through a steel sword using nothing but paper.
The strike carried the beauty of a blade—enough to make one believe.
The chain remnant, cut clean in half, went flying with the momentum intact. It slammed into the white wall of the Clocktower, shattering the surface and plunging into the building. Seeing smoke and rubble rain down into the plaza, Subaru finally came back to himself.
He had been transfixed.
By Reinhard's fighting prowess. Whether what had held him there was envy or awe, he couldn't say.
"That's Reinhard's fight to handle. Then I...!"
No point just standing around here, merely waiting for a resolution.
Shaking off the absurd spectacle of himself standing slack-jawed, Subaru squeezed through the crowd and dashed into the Clocktower. With Sirius occupied against Reinhard, Rusbel—the boy who'd been prepared as part of the speech's performance—should have been left unattended in the tower.
He would retrieve him and cut off any lingering concerns.
In case Sirius tried to use Rusbel as leverage to shake Reinhard.
Inside the dim, damp air of the Clocktower, Subaru raced up the spiral staircase.
The reason his visibility was brighter than during the previous run, just fifteen minutes or so ago, was thanks to the breach in the wall that the chain released from Sirius's right hand had created.
Clambering to the top without hesitation, Subaru found Rusbel bound on the highest floor. The boy lay face-down, the floor wet from incontinence, and the sound of his quiet sobbing struck Subaru's chest.
"Rusbel! It's okay now—don't worry!"
Rushing over, Subaru lifted Rusbel up and pulled the chains from his mouth.
The warm, damp sensation was nothing. The boy, weeping torrents of tears, saw Subaru's face and desperately turned away, cringing in fear.
"Mmn—!"
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm on your side. That monster is my enemy, and right now she's got her hands full fighting a hero outside. So let's get you out of here while we can."
"——!"
Forcing eye contact, Subaru spoke with earnest sincerity. Gradually, Rusbel's body relaxed. The tears pooling in his eyes gave way to lucidity as he looked at Subaru.
Returning the boy's nod, Rusbel began to sob—this time for a different reason.
"Stay put. I'll have these off you in a second."
Patting the boy's trembling head, Subaru carefully removed the chains without causing harm. The chains wound from shoulders to ankles, and those wrapped around his face like a muzzle—Subaru made sure the links didn't bite into the boy's young skin and removed them all with care.
"Done. Can you stand on your own? If not, I'll carry you."
"I-I'm fine... Th-thank you very much..."
Rusbel stood on wobbly legs and bowed to Subaru. Tears still streaked his face, but he was a brave kid—Subaru patted his head once more.
Then, glancing toward the outside where the fierce exchange of blows still raged— "Staying here might not be safe either. We should get out of the tower first. Can you walk? Anywhere hurt?"
"My right arm... it just started a little, from before..."
Wincing, Rusbel honestly showed Subaru his injury.
On the boy's outstretched right arm, there were bruises shaped as if a snake had coiled around it, along with sharp lacerations. At the sight of the wound, dark with welling blood, Subaru's face twisted in pained sympathy.
"That bastard—tying up a little kid wasn't enough, he had to hurt him too?"
"No, that's not it. This wound... it just suddenly... while I was tied up, it suddenly started hurting."
"Suddenly?"
Hearing Rusbel say it happened while he was bound, Subaru tilted his head.
At the very least, Subaru hadn't wounded him while undoing the restraints. He'd been careful, and even if he'd caused damage that severe, he would have noticed.
—A deeply unpleasant premonition stirred in his chest.
"...Let's go. Either way, we can't stay here."
Grabbing Rusbel's uninjured left hand, Subaru pulled the boy along and ran. They descended the spiral staircase to the ground floor in one go, and together they exited the tower.
And when Subaru emerged, the plaza was filled with— "——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
—the thunderous kill-call of the crowd, spitting blood as they demanded the execution of the cornered aberrant.
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Eyes bloodshot, teeth bared, stomping on the cobblestones, the people cried out in unison for slaughter.
Endless hatred for the atrocities committed. Revulsion toward the aberrant who planted discomfort in others. The hostile urge to purge someone viscerally repulsive. These negative emotions summoned murderous intent.
Taken together, do you know what humans call that?
—Humans call it "Wrath."
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Strangers who didn't even know each other's names linked shoulders and marched toward a single purpose.
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The spirit of unity forged in the face of hardship. The moral nature of humanity, tested in the extraordinary.
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
If, in an extreme situation, one chose to band together—then that was— "——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Becoming one with each other... that's what 'love' is, isn't it? Then don't you think this is unmistakably a scene made possible by 'love'?"
Before a scene that could only be described as a living hell, Sirius whispered in a voice that bordered on ecstasy.
With her back against the Clocktower, the aberrant was cornered by the hero on the cobblestones. The crowd surrounding them wished for the aberrant's death, and their champion, the Sword Saint, possessed the power to finish her off.
Cornered as she was, Sirius appeared to have lost the chain on her left arm as well. With both combatants weaponless, the aberrant had no means of defending against Reinhard's knife-hand.
Death in a corner—and yet, Sirius continued to smile, her demeanor unchanged.
"Any last words?"
"Thanks. Well then, just one piece of advice. The other Sin Archbishops aren't as docile as I am, so if you try to hear their dying words, you'll be in for a terrible time."
"——I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
Facing Reinhard's mercy, Sirius let slip words that were nakedly provocative. Reinhard dutifully nodded in response, then stepped forward with his knife-hand poised to execute her.
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The crowd's voltage climbed ever higher. Sirius's fate was already sealed.
And yet—why was it that...
At the entrance to the Clocktower, Subaru felt a chill that clawed at his chest.
What was its cause? What did it mean? He tried desperately to put it into words, but his mouth wouldn't move. Because if it did, Subaru would say words he didn't intend to say.
Surely, Subaru would scream "Kill!" too.
"Knowing one another. Yielding to one another. Accepting one another. Forgiving one another. That—becoming one—is the true and proper form of 'love.'"
Paying no heed to Subaru's rising agitation, Sirius pressed forward with her self-serving thesis.
On the surface, it sounded correct—but considering who Sirius was, the sentiment instantly transformed into something revolting.
"————"
Reinhard, it seemed, had reached the same judgment as Subaru.
He stepped forward, resolved not to let Sirius speak another word. But before him, Sirius sneered and stretched her arm skyward.
Immediately after, a sound like something springing loose erupted from beneath her coat sleeve—a chain shot forth. Hidden in the sleeve was a mechanism that launched the chain, which wrapped around the tower's spire and wrenched Sirius upward in one motion.
She was fleeing—and at that display, Reinhard stamped down on the ground without holding back.
A shockwave erupted. Crimson flame surged toward Sirius, who was being winched skyward by the chain.
The knife-hand he raised was a one-hit kill that surpassed any ordinary blade.
The instant it reached her, Sirius's life would end.
"——Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The crowd's cry—would it be fulfilled?
Terror raced up Subaru's spine with tremendous force. On pure instinct— "Reinhard!!"
He called the hero's name. Guided by that agitation, he screamed.
"——Kill!!"
The knife-hand cleaved forward.
Its trajectory traced a white line, slicing clean through Sirius's body from her left shoulder to her right flank.
The slash was so vivid, its sharpness so absolute, that even the body itself took several seconds to register the cut. Seconds later, when understanding finally caught up, fresh blood erupted from the wound, and Sirius's body, bisected at an angle, crumbled and fell.
"...Ah, what a gentle world."
Spilling her innards, Sirius's body split in two.
Her upper half, still entwined by the chain, rose into the sky trailing blood and intestines, while the lower half left behind fountained blood across the plaza as it tumbled to the ground.
A nightmare tableau, hurled apart between heaven and earth.
A horror so ghastly that everyone would want to look away. But no one did.
No one could.
"...No way."
Landing and turning back, Reinhard uttered the words in shock.
His blue eyes trembled with grief, and a shadow of despair fell across his refined features. Subaru saw it all.
—That was as far as Subaru could see.
"————"
Subaru, along with the crowd, lay scattered across what had become a pool of blood in the plaza.
Exposed from left shoulder to right flank—the clean, bisecting wound on full display.
"————"
Blood and intestines spilling everywhere, his consciousness was dragged toward death without even understanding what had happened. But just before the end—he thought he felt it.
The boy's left hand, which he'd been holding onto all this while—the left hand of a boy who had been cut clean in half, just like Subaru—had given his right hand a faint, pleading squeeze.
Or so he thought.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "For our post-song chat, won't you have Natsuki-sama arrange some refreshments? Surely you could get some sweet treats prepared, don't you think? It'll lift everyone's spirits and bring us all closer together in an instant. Don't you think? Don't you?"
"————!"
"Ow! Owwww! It hurts! It hurts, Subaru!!"
Blinking, Subaru heard the voice and jumped, startled.
In the same instant that his consciousness switched over from the brink, the lingering impulse to squeeze back carried through—and the unnecessary grip strength that could crush an apple clamped down hard on little
At Subaru's sudden act of violence, Beatrice's eyes brimmed with tears as she kicked him in the shin. The pain brought him back to himself, and he released Beatrice's hand and stumbled backward.
"Wh-wh-what is wrong with you?! You suddenly tried to destroy Beatrice's hand... those poor, poor cute little hands. I-I could lick and suck them to make them all better, haa haa—"
"I'd rather you didn't! Don't come near me when you're giving off such a creepy vibe all of a sudden!"
Liliana, cheeks flushed and breathing hard, snatched Beatrice's hand away. Beatrice wriggled free, then hid behind Subaru with a frightened expression. Even after nearly having her hand crushed, Beatrice's trust in her partner remained unshaken—a kindness that pierced Subaru to the core.
But now was not the time for that.
"Subaru, are you all right? Your face just went completely pale."
"Emi...
Emilia was at his side in an instant, placing a worried hand on his cheek. Looking into her violet eyes, framed by those long lashes, and seeing his own reflection there, he exhaled.
He was back, apparently.
He patted his shoulder and flank—the places where he'd been cleanly bisected. He'd been disemboweled, had his head crushed, and died in any number of horrible ways before, but this was his first experience with an actual bisection. The shock and sense of loss outweighed the pain—the sensation of body and soul being dragged under all at once by the fact of "death." Even for a repeat-death sommelier like Subaru, it had been a convincing way to go.
"Something like that, anyway... not that I can just brush it off..."
Once his understanding caught up to the inherited memories, what assailed Subaru was the belated, encroaching reality of "death."
The fact of the bisection hadn't carried over the pain, but the sense of loss and the shock came crashing in. And once he'd processed that, what remained lay beyond understanding itself.
Specifically, the cause of death this time— "This is cheating..."
Needless to say, he understood.
Subaru's bisection this time was identical to the way Sirius had died moments before. In other words, simply put, Subaru had died the exact same death that Sirius had. Looking back thirty minutes to the first loop, Subaru had witnessed Rusbel's death amid Sirius's ecstasy and died right after—but the cause of death, unknown to him then, was now made clear.
—Sirius could, through some mechanism, inflict the same "death" on anyone who witnessed a death.
It wasn't just brainwashing through emotional fluctuation or sharing. One should consider that even physical changes were made to transfer. Not brainwashing—call it life-washing, or soul-washing.
In other words, killing her meant harming everyone present.
"What am I supposed to do...?"
The goal of stopping Sirius's rampage had been achieved by calling Reinhard out.
But the price was the lives of everyone who'd been there. That produced the exact same outcome as if Sirius had carried out her plan on her own.
Calling Reinhard out appeared to be a clear, correct answer—but it was nothing more than a wrong answer disguised as an obvious one. So what should he do instead?
"Call Reinhard out and have him take her alive...?"
Was that possible? If we're speaking strictly of possibility, it wasn't impossible.
If Reinhard could kill her, then he could presumably restrain her consciousness alone. The problem was that even if he captured her alive, there was no guarantee that her mental domination would be severed.
From merely coming into contact with Sirius, Subaru had died a mad death alongside the boy. If that inexplicable contagion of madness persisted, she could not be kept alive even in captivity.
Killing her meant everyone who killed her would die too.
Keeping her alive meant there was no way to deny the possibility of an irresistible madness spreading.
A being who threatened others simply by existing—a living bomb. As expected of a Sin Archbishop.
"Is there... any way...?"
Unable to find a thread to pull himself out, Subaru's thoughts hit a dead end.
If he called Reinhard out, the hero could certainly defeat Sirius and capture her. Was that enough? Should he just accept that, and turn a blind eye to the possibility of that madness?
"————"
Time passed while Subaru agonized.
Emilia and Liliana wore worried expressions as he sat there in silence. He wanted to spare them concern right now—and avoid having them notice what awaited.
Subaru quickly composed his face.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just, you know... that big sukiyaki from this morning suddenly came back up on me. I was feeling a little nauseous."
"Oh, I know, I know! I sometimes burp by mistake, or accidentally let one slip instead of a—"
"That's enough. You're a girl, remember. Never, ever finish that sentence."
Shutting down Liliana's cheerful descent into crude humor, Subaru turned to Emilia with a smile. She lowered her gaze slightly at that, but— "If you say so, Subaru, I'll trust you. ...This is special, you know?"
"Yeah, thanks. ...Anyway, I'm gonna go buy some sweets, just like Liliana suggested. Emilia-tan, you enjoy the song, okay?"
Leaning into Emilia's concern, Subaru gave a light wave and made his declaration. Then, taking the hand of Beatrice, who was looking up at him from right beside him— "Beako. You're coming shopping with me too. We'll be lovey-dovey and cutesy the whole way, just like always."
"What is this all of a sudden—hmph. Fine, understood."
Beatrice's face reddened on reflex and she started to turn away with a tsundere huff, but one look at Subaru's expression drew out her dere side instead. More accurately, she caught the pleading look in his eyes and accepted it.
Showing only a face that leaned on Beatrice, Subaru led her by the hand and dashed out of the park for the fourth time.
This time, he'd brought his dependable partner along without leaving her behind.
And yet, he still had no clue what to do or which way to turn.
"—Hmm."
—That retreating figure of Subaru and Beatrice, the woman in red watched with a knowing gaze.