New Chapter 15: "Unfinished Symphony"
——Crack.
A thin‚ cruel fissure ran through the absolute-zero silence that dominated the arena.
Everyone heard that faint sound of rupture.
No——the world itself held its breath at that single note.
The jet-black conductor's baton (takt) gripped by his archrival‚ Soran. A single scratch etched into its polished surface reflected the white light on stage‚ flickering silver.
The spectator seats suddenly stirred.
「……A crack?」
「On Soran-sama's takt……?」
「No way‚ that 'perfect' score……」
Everyone doubted their own eyes. For the first time‚ an "error" had appeared in the score of the man who had crushed the remnants of the world and executed only the shortest‚ correct path.
Cross shouldered his soot-covered greatsword‚ exhaled white breath‚ and laughed with his mouth wide open.
「Ha! Did you see the power of these muscles (my soul)! My latissimus dorsi hacked time itself!」
「That's not it‚ you muscle idiot!」
Mark roughly raised and lowered his shoulders‚ impatiently wiping the sweat from his forehead as he immediately interjected.
「That was the result of all of us timing our strikes together!」
「All the tiny details are just part of my muscles!」
「That theory ignores the laws of physics every single time!」
Liam‚ while regripping his massive shield with arms trembling from extreme numbness‚ couldn't help but let a smile slip.
「But…… it really did reach him. Our dissonance (ensemble) shattered that silence.」
In his blue eyes as he held up the shield‚ a muddy yet unmistakable raw hope dwelled.
「See! The heat from fivefold miso isn't just for show! I kept your half-frozen nerves properly anchored!」
「Why the hell are you bringing up miso at the final moment of a mythical showdown!」
「Because it's the anchor of life!」
「That doesn't explain anything!」
In the battlefield frozen by despair‚ an out-of-place everyday laughter was born.
For that one instant‚ they almost believed in a future where their clumsy power could surpass "perfection."
But——.
Soran quietly looked down at his cracked takt.
For a mere 0.1 seconds‚ his gaze alone spilled from the perfectly paved flow of time. But in the next instant‚ he relaxed his thin lips as if nothing had happened.
「……I see.」
There was no anger‚ no impatience‚ not even a shadow of defeat. Only an extremely detached curiosity‚ like a researcher detecting an unknown bug.
「So this is the limit of you all.」
His voice carried no temperature. It was simply cold‚ as if reading out the solution to an equation.
「Very interesting. Even completed silence can record temporary noise if the dissonance carries this much mass.」
「……Soran-sama.」
The amethyst eyes of Ceres standing beside him wavered slightly. Her lips moved as if hesitating for just a moment.
But no voice was spun from them. She quietly shook her violet-black hair‚ lowered her eyelids‚ and with perfectly composed movements‚ stepped back once more to a position one step behind the silver conductor.
It was at that moment.
Behind Soran——behind the silver-rimmed glasses‚ the blue logs projected in Elze's eyes accelerated like a muddy torrent. The gray blood vessels rising on her neck pulsed with a sticky heat‚ as if enduring high-load computation.
SECOND SERIAL PATCH...
NETWORK REBUILD...
SYNCHRONIZATION...
100.000%
Every part of her irises was filled with countless equations and optimization logs.
「Central processing unit (CPU) update.」
A perfectly emotionless‚ flat voice echoed through the arena.
「Second serial circuit activated. Dealing with simultaneous emission (parallel attack) of impurities (noise).」
A shiver. An unpleasant chill‚ enough to trigger survival instincts‚ ran up their spines.
「All personnel.」
Soran casually swung his cracked takt once.
「Let us resume the performance. To fill this impure world once more with 'correctness'.」
The world froze.
The silent vacuum blades unleashed by Zephyra sliced the very air at the molecular level. The multilayer fixed barriers deployed by Valt sewed the space shut like an invisible coffin‚ stealing even the convection of the atmosphere. Every time Ignis's petrified right arm pierced the earth‚ the exposed cold magical power scattered ice crystals with a crackle‚ transforming the entire arena into a resonance chamber for the "Requiem of Death."
Everything was different from before. The speed of adaptation transcended dimensions.
「Here it comes…… everyone‚ get behind me!」
Liam struck his shield to summon the 'Core of the Bell'.
——GOOOOOONG!!
But the impact that surged forth was a "mass of silence" that forcibly crushed raw mass. The violent cold transmitted through the shield froze the stone pavement at Liam's feet‚ shoving his massive body back several meters in an unsightly manner.
「Guh…… aah……!」
A single ominous crack ran across the mirror-polished surface of the shield with a *crack*.
「Liam!」
At the same time I shouted‚ Mark exploded neon-mint sparks from the 'Gale' magic boots. Mark who bent his straight trajectory like a pinball‚ attempting to cut in from an unpredictable angle.
However——.
「Meaningless. That movement vector has already been registered in the rejection (cancel) list.」
Zephyra's vacuum blade sliced through the "empty space where Mark was supposed to step" in advance.
「Wha——!?」
The neon-mint trail vanished as if absorbed before it could even be born. An unavoidable impact struck Mark‚ sending his body flying unsightly.
「Mark! ……You bastard‚ use my soul (my soul) as a stepping stone!!」
Cross cut in‚ expanding both arms to their limits and using his greatsword as a shield.
——BAGIIIIIIN!!
「Gah…… haa‚ !?」
The earth shattered and Cross dropped to one knee. His proud steel arms froze‚ and gray frost encroached upon his skin. An absolute pressure of silence that mercilessly defined the heat of his soul as "undefinable" and crushed it.
「Cross! Now‚ with the heat of the miso……!」
The moment Rinne tried to run over‚ Valt's ice curse (anchor) crawled up from beneath her feet‚ pinning her shadow and all to the stone pavement.
「No way…… my movements are completely sealed……」
Kotone hammered her hologram at blood-seeping speed‚ but her fingertips were beginning to stop.
「Impossible…… the optimal timing for parallel input is being rewritten on a per-second basis…… The gaps in the lag that were working until just now are being closed in an instant……!」
The simultaneous emission (parallel attack) that should have been their breakthrough was now completely surrounded by the second equation Soran constructed.
I gripped my trembling takt tightly with my right hand‚ which had been invaded by white. From my fingertips to my wrist. The absolute-zero white froze my nerves‚ and even my heartbeat ached as if scraped by an ice razor.
（No……！）
（This future wasn't in my score……！）
Soran turned‚ flipping his impeccably orderly military uniform‚ and looked at us. Cold‚ violet eyes. In those pupils‚ even the vulgar concept of victory or defeat no longer existed.
「You all have certainly evolved. Simultaneous input of dissonance——as a bug that burdens the system‚ it was quite excellent.」
One step. Another step. He approached‚ his cold footsteps ringing out‚ while completely concealing his left arm‚ which was heading toward gray death.
「That is precisely why I also updated the system by one. That is all.」
The tip of the takt pointed straight at the center of my brow.
「An unfinished product can never reach a completed one. ——The performance is over‚ Aria.」
Simultaneous with that ruthless declaration‚ the absolute-zero silence covering the arena poured down on us from above with a mass incomparable to before.
What was drawn on Soran's retina was the most beautiful and perfect "score of death‚" paved with our corpses.
The tiny‚ warm steam we had produced.
Our comrades' muddy‚ raw heat——.
Once again——they were quietly sinking to the bottom of absolute-zero ice.
——The world stopped.
No‚ it wasn't that it stopped. It was stopped.
Soran’s cracked takt sliced through the air just once‚ quietly. With only that‚ the waveforms of our magical power that had been flowing wildly throughout the arena were forcibly rearranged into "serial" all at once‚ with visible coercive force.
The lag disappeared. The wavering vanished. The muddy heat noise was sucked into transparent vacuum.
Every sound filling the arena——was completely brought under control beneath a single equation.
「……Beautiful.」
The words involuntarily rose to my throat. I didn't want to admit it. I absolutely must not admit it‚ yet the score of death being reconstructed before my eyes was so terrifying and beautiful that it numbed my brain.
It was as if the world itself had become a huge‚ cruel music box designed solely for one conductor named Soran.
（No……！）
（Don't think a bloodless score like this is beautiful……！）
「Emotions are unnecessary noise.」
Soran’s voice was endlessly quiet. He did not shout. He did not intimidate. He simply read out the calculated facts in a detached manner.
「Hesitation is lag (delay) to the system.」
One step. The silver military uniform swayed in the vacuum without a single rustle.
「Empathy is a bug that brings errors in calculation.」
Another step. There was not a single millimeter of waste in the footsteps that hid the massive price of his petrified left arm.
「A completed score has no need for the uncertain element called humans. Emotions cause the loss of perfect reproducibility. Therefore‚ delete them all. ……That is the only correct answer.」
At that instant‚ Zephyra moved. It was not wind. The very vacuum she wore ignored coordinates and teleported.
「Right‚ Mark!」
I shouted. But——before the shout finished‚ the vacuum fluctuation went from right to left. From left to above. From above to behind. The "unpredictable space" where Mark was supposed to scatter neon-mint sparks and escape had already been rewritten in advance.
「Guh……！」
Mark barely twisted his body. However‚ the vacuum blade that exceeded the evasion limit mercilessly tore his shoulder. Fresh blood scattered as red ice crystals into the absolute-zero night sky.
「No way……！」
For the first time‚ genuine despair appeared on Mark's face. It wasn't that he lost in speed. The opponent had "prepared the faster future in advance and was waiting."
「Mark! ……You bastard!!」
Cross leaped in. Raising his huge soot-covered greatsword‚ he pumped up his proud muscles to the limit. A pure mass weapon carrying all of his muddy soul‚ without logic.
「UOOOOOOOOH！！」
But Soran didn't even look at that massive weight. He didn't dodge. He didn't even issue a command.
Valt's deployed multilayer barrier inorganicly redefined Cross's "heat of the soul" as mere "kinetic energy vector" and slid its power sideways as it was.
——ZUGAAAAAAN！！
A roar. The stone pavement exploded. Cross's full power pierced the earth‚ and only shattered rubble danced high into the air.
「Wha……」
Cross's muscles stiffened. For the first time in his life‚ his full power‚ infused with soul‚ was not even allowed to touch the enemy and was "processed."
「Liam!」
「Yes!!」
The coordination of Liam holding his shield in the dust cloud created by Cross was the result of hundreds of simulations.
However——.
「Too slow.」
Soran quietly announced. Ignis's petrified right arm accurately crushed the heart of the shield with the handle of his spear.
——GOOOOOONG！！
The bell rang. No‚ it was not the sound of a bell carrying people's heat‚ but the "scream" of metal being crushed.
「Guh…… guh‚ aah！！」
Second‚ third‚ fourth cracks like a spider web ran across Liam's shield with the sound of despair.
「Liam!」
「Not yet……！！」
He braced himself while coughing blood. But his knees trembled pitifully‚ and the bones in the arms supporting the shield screamed. One more hit. The next hit would completely shatter our defense.
「Kotone!」
In response to my scream-like cry‚ countless purple hologram monitors deployed. Equations‚ correction values‚ predicted waveforms. All kinds of formulas flowed at high speed from Kotone's fingertips.
「No……！」
The color instantly drained from Kotone's face.
「It's all being read……！」
The deployed holograms were successively dyed in bright red alert colors. Future prediction‚ coordination correction‚ position correction——all of them‚ all of them‚ all of them. "Error corrected."
「Every second…… it's learning our actions and updating the serial circuit……！」
Impossible. We move muddily once. In 0.1 seconds‚ the other side completes the "optimal solution" for that move. If we grow‚ the other side incorporates even that growth width into the calculation and seals it. The more we fight‚ the more our win rate converges to absolute 'zero'.
It was then.
Behind Soran‚ inside Elze's silver-rimmed glasses‚ pale blue logs flowed like a waterfall. The gray blood vessels on her neck pulsed with abnormal heat.
WIN PROBABILITY UPDATE...
99.98%
STABLE
NO ERROR
She said it flatly‚ as if announcing today's weather.
「Win probability. Ninety-nine point nine eight percent.」
There was no joy of victory in that voice. Not even a hint of arrogance. Only the 'correct answer' derived by the system existed there.
I regripped the takt with a trembling hand. The absolute-zero white eroding my fingertips had finally crossed the wrist boundary and begun spreading to my forearm. The pocket watch at my waist pulsed madly‚ and the red numbers shaving Iris's life decreased like a waterfall.
——The future flooded into my mind.
Ten thousand. Twenty thousand. Thirty thousand possibilities. Burning Iris's life to see them all. Read them all. Calculate them all.
The future where Cross falls. The future where Liam's shield shatters. The future where Rinne cries in a pool of blood. The future where Mark loses speed and is torn apart. The future where Kotone's monitor completely blacks out.
See the future. Iris's lifespan decreases. See again. Decrease again.
And——no matter which future I chose‚ the one standing on the ice throne at the end was always a single cold conductor in a silver uniform.
（……No way.）
My heart froze and my breath stopped.
（No…… No. No.）
I had seen tens of thousands of futures in the past. Each time‚ cruelly shaving away the sleeping Iris's life‚ I continued seeking the optimal solution. Tens of thousands of times‚ I had matched dissonances with my comrades‚ covered in mud.
Yet——the futures I tried to derive had all‚ from the very beginning‚ been defined as defeat.
Something inside my chest crumbled with a sound.
The hope called "optimal solution" that I had believed in and clung to until now turned to gray sand and slipped through my fingers.
「Calculation is」
The cold violet eyes accurately pierced me as I was about to drop to my knees.
「Not something done in order to win.」
The white-gloved hand slowly closed. The gesture was quieter and more absolute than a death god's verdict.
「It exists solely to confirm the 'correct answer' that was decided from the beginning.」
My breathing completely stopped.
It was the very ideology of the "completed monster" that had pushed my mother's theory to the extreme——the one I had once admired and now most wanted to deny.
And the future where I could resist and defeat that monster had not existed even once‚ no matter how much of Iris's life I shaved away to peer into it.
……That was precisely why‚ in the midst of despair‚ I could do nothing but continue looking at meaningless futures.
——Cold.
The absolute-zero chill transmitted from my white-invaded right arm slowly crawled up to the depths of my heart.
My breathing was shallow. Sounds were distant.
My comrades' blood-coughing cries‚ the scream-like roars of shield and sword clashing‚ even the perfect death rhythm struck by Soran's takt——everything grew hazy as if echoing from the bottom of thick ice.
（……No good.）
Consciousness was falling. If I let myself be swallowed by the 'white' and discarded emotions‚ I could become a perfect calculator. If I became the same "monster" as Soran——I could win.
It was at that moment.
Softly. A single warm 'golden' light pierced into the frozen world.
＊
When I noticed‚ I was standing on soft grass.
A golden flower field as far as the eye could see. Countless flowers swaying in the wind played a gentle rustling sound. Neither the smell of blood from the battlefield nor the scent of scorched magic existed here. The sky was endlessly blue‚ and the sun was unbearably warm.
A simply peaceful world. A beautiful sanctuary that was the very radiance of Iris's life.
No matter how much I shaved away her time‚ this place alone never faded and always gently welcomed me.
「……Here again.」
A terribly distorted bitter smile leaked out. Every time my heart felt like breaking‚ I escaped here.
And——.
「Aria!」
A bouncing voice. She ran through the golden flower field‚ holding down her straw hat.
White one-piece dress. Golden hair. The brightest‚ sun-like smile in this world.
It was Iris.
「……You're late.」
Completely out of breath‚ she stopped in front of me.
「I've been waiting forever.」
「……Sorry.」
「You lied just now‚ didn't you?」
Puffing out her cheeks‚ she pouted.
「Eh?」
「I know everything about Aria!」
She leaned forward and peered into my face.
「When you apologize‚ you make a more troubled face.」
「……Even that gets analyzed?」
「Because I've been watching you from the closest place all this time.」
The moment I saw that innocent smile as she giggled‚ my chest ached as if gouged by an ice blade.
「……Iris.」
「What is it?」
「I」
The words wouldn't come out. Instead‚ my frozen throat trembled with a wheeze.
「I want to save you.」
「Yeah.」
「So I calculated.」
「Yeah.」
「Everything. Tens of thousands of times. Shaving away your lifespan.」
「……I know.」
「Even so…… I couldn't win.」
Silence. Only the wind gently swayed the fully bloomed flowers.
「Therefore」
I tightly clenched my fist‚ which was beginning to turn white.
「I'll…… discard everything now.」
「……」
「I saw the future. The way to surpass Soran's theory too. If I discard emotions and become the 'system' myself‚ I can win.」
「……」
「But beyond that‚ there was no longer 'me'……」
Because I had come to know warm emotions. Because I had come to know the gentleness of your echo (powan). Becoming unable to return‚ becoming inhuman‚ terrified me to my core.
「But if I do that」
「……」
「Everyone can become happy.」
The moment I spat out those words.
——Plop.
A single transparent tear slid down Iris's cheek.
「……Eh?」
「No.」
A small‚ hoarse voice.
「I don't want that.」
Another tear fell.
「I don't want it.」
I froze.
Iris was crying. Silencing her voice‚ her small shoulders trembling.
「I」
Without even wiping her tears‚ she looked up at me while spilling large teardrops.
「Wanted to see a future where Aria is smiling.」
My chest tightened as if crushed.
「You don't have to be a strong Aria. You don't have to be perfect. It's okay to fail. It's okay to cry. It's okay to get angry. It's okay to be lost a lot. But……！」
A trembling smile‚ messed up by tears.
「Don't discard it. ……I like Aria as a human Aria……！」
I gasped.
「Hey.」
Iris took one step closer.
「The truth is」
Her small hands gently touched my frozen chest.
「You were scared of me dying‚ weren't you?」
With just those words.
The chains of 'theory' and 'calculation' wrapped around my heart shattered to pieces with a sound.
「……No.」
I denied it.
「No……」
Once more.
「No……！」
The third time. But the words wouldn't continue.
It wasn't wrong. It was all exactly right.
「I……」
My lips trembled. Something hot flowed backward from my white-stained right arm.
「Scared.」
I said it for the first time.
「I'm scared……！」
Hot tears spilled from my eyes.
「The thought of you disappearing is unbearable. I want to save you. I don't want you to die…… I hate it. I hate it……！」
I cried like a child. Ugly‚ pathetic‚ sobbing. There was no face of the "conductor" who had calculated tens of thousands of possibilities there.
Only a powerless boy‚ crying because he was terrified of losing the person he loved most.
Iris said nothing. She simply stood on tiptoe‚ snuggled close to me as I sobbed‚ and gently embraced me with her arms.
Warm. So unbearably warm.
「Thank you.」
She gently laughed by my ear.
「Finally.」
A golden wind blew across the entire flower field in full bloom.
「Finally‚ I could hear the real Aria's sound.」
At that instant‚ all the golden flowers across the world swayed at once. Countless petals turned into dazzling particles of light and danced toward the heavens.
They were countless notes of light. Not calculation. Not a cold score. The world's clumsiest and warmest living echo (powan)‚ born only when someone's heart trembles.
Enveloped in that muddy sound of life‚ my consciousness was slowly pulled back from the bottom of cold ice to reality.
The last thing I heard was Iris's voice‚ slightly hoarse from tears‚ yet as gentle as the sun.
「Hey Aria. Don't suppress your emotions anymore. I want to hear your sound…… I love the warm‚ real sound of you full of emotions. Next time——」
She smiled. Smiling a little troubledly‚ she strongly pushed my back.
「I absolutely won't allow you to break alone. So‚ together with everyone…… this time it's your turn to play too.」
——Thump.
Something definitely pulsed deep in my chest.
Hotness flowed backward into the blood vessels of my white-frozen right arm.
The scent of golden flowers disappeared. The gentle wind and the endless meadow were no longer there.
Instead‚ the sharp smell of burnt ozone and the raw scent of blood stung my nose.
The ear-splitting roar of vacuum. The creaking of ice walls. The screams of clashing swords.
And——.
「Aria！！」
It was Rinne's heartbreaking scream‚ as if her throat would tear.
Consciousness was yanked back from the bottom of ice to the real arena all at once. My white-hazed vision regained sharp outlines.
Before my eyes‚ Liam desperately supported his shield cracked like a spider web‚ Cross‚ while on one knee‚ planted his greatsword into the stone pavement to form a wall with his massive body. Fresh blood scattered from Mark's torn shoulder into the night wind‚ and Kotone hammered her hologram‚ dyed in bright red error logs‚ at a speed that made blood seep from her fingertips.
Everyone was still fighting.
Believing in me. Blindly trusting the bloodless‚ cold score I had calculated.
（……No.）
A small but clear voice sounded deep in my chest.
（That's not it.）
It was my own true feelings‚ no longer the face of a child afraid of theory.
I slowly lowered my gaze and looked at my right hand.
Cold fingertips invaded white up to the wrist. The ebony takt still gripped tightly there.
How many futures had I peered into‚ how much of Iris's life had I shaved‚ how many comrades had I worn down as frontline pieces‚ all to swing this one baton?
「……It's enough now.」
I muttered softly.
Soran was quietly watching me with the coldness of an ice statue.
「Is it over?」
A temperatureless voice like a completed machine.
「If you are abandoning calculation‚ that is fine.」
Behind Soran‚ the silver orchestra once again formed a fatal formation. Absolute-zero silence. Placement with not a millimeter of deviation. Beautiful. Therefore‚ endlessly cold‚ the art of death.
「Performance‚ begin.」
Soran’s takt rose high like the signal for execution.
（Ah…… I finally understand. What prodigy? It was such a simple thing.）
I slowly lowered my white-stained right hand.
And——gently released the strength from my fingertips.
——Clatter.
A dry sound pierced the silence.
The ebony takt fell and rolled onto the frozen stone pavement.
In Soran’s absolute-zero space‚ that small wooden sound echoed through the arena with an eerie resonance strong enough to crack the perfect world.
「……Eh?」
Kotone stopped her hands on the keyboard and gasped.
「Aria……-dono?」
Behind the shield‚ Liam’s blue eyes shook violently.
「H-hey!!」
The latter half: Mark shouted while scattering neon-mint sparks.
「What are you doing‚ conductor!!」
Even Cross widened his eyes‚ forgetting the pain.
Both enemy and ally. All eyes on the battlefield gathered on me‚ now unarmed.
Only Soran slightly furrowed his well-shaped brows.
「……You are discarding command?」
Into that flat voice mixed the color of "incomprehensible‚" perhaps for the first time in his life.
I quietly nodded.
「Yeah.」
I placed my now-empty white-stained right hand on my left chest.
「I won't run from hesitation anymore.」
The lining of my left chest. The anti-magic fiber that Rinne had sewn tightly with clumsy stitches. Inside it slept the 'Ancient Heart Fragment (Artifact)'.
Two heartbeats pulsed warmly at the same time.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
As if someone was gently embracing me from behind‚ directly warming and supporting my frozen heart.
「I was wrong.」
I slowly exhaled the white-clouded breath.
「I had arbitrarily convinced myself that to win‚ I had to calculate everything perfectly.」
Rinne quietly watched me‚ lowering her ladle. Kotone‚ Liam‚ Cross‚ Mark too. No one interrupted.
「But I was wrong. ……Completely wrong.」
I smiled.
Probably because I had cried like a child from the bottom of my heart earlier. It was surely the clumsiest‚ most pathetic smile I had ever made in my life.
「I」
I took a deep breath of the freezing air into my lungs.
「Am truly foolish.」
Soran said nothing. He simply stared at me as if observing a bug.
「I get lost‚ I fail‚ I'm scared‚ I cry right away.」
One by one‚ I spun the weaknesses in my heart into words‚ as if exposing them to the world.
「But」
I slowly looked around at my comrades.
My eyes met Rinne's. With large tears welling up‚ she still sniffled and smiled defiantly.
Cross bared his fangs grandly and raised the corners of his mouth.
Liam regripped his cracked bell shield and nodded quietly and deeply.
Mark shrugged his shoulders as if exasperated‚ saying "good grief."
Kotone pushed up her slipping glasses with her middle finger and let out a small laugh.
「Nagi guided me‚ believing in this muddy me.」
「Iris stayed by my weakness.」
「Rinne…… pulled me back to this warm world many times.」
Everyone had been sounding their own unique voices (koe) so close by from the very beginning.
I had never been a lone conductor from the start.
「I won't calculate anymore. A future fixed by the system is nothing much.」
I quietly extended forward the right hand that had discarded the takt. Particles of magical power beyond the limit spilled from my whitened fingertips.
「I won't become perfect either. Because…… that wouldn't be fun at all.」
Thump‚ the heart fragment rang strongly.
The anti-magic fiber transmitted heat beyond body temperature.
Iris's golden echo (powan) rode my bloodstream and gently resonated throughout my body.
『Aria! Now‚ it's your turn to play together with everyone.』
I closed my eyes. Then‚ I laughed with all my might.
「I」
I slowly opened my eyes‚ looked into each person's pupils‚ and shouted in a voice that echoed across the battlefield.
「Haha……! I am far more selfish than I thought! I want to live together with everyone!!」
——THUMP！！！
The heart fragment pulsed with unprecedented massive force.
The anti-magic fiber sewn into the left chest lining instantly grew hot and began emitting dazzling 'golden' light.
That heat did not end with my body alone.
To Cross. To Liam. To Mark. To Kotone. To Rinne.
Invisible strands of 'golden echo' gently melted the gray cold in the air and connected to each comrade's chest.
It was not a command from the conductor. It was not domination like a serial circuit. It was not a cramped score that bound one person to another.
It was an extremely muddy‚ living ensemble that complemented each other's lacks and overlapped each other's heartbeats.
＊
Far away‚ on the terrace of the night medical ward.
Under moonlight swaying in the wind‚ Nagi quietly closed her eyes and whispered.
「……You've finally arrived.」
The poisonous blue blood vessels on her neck that absorbed the world's noise——now resonated with the golden sound reaching from the distant arena‚ pulsing with a clear white glow as if the accumulated curse had been purified.
＊
The arena.
Kotone opened her eyes wide as if seeing something unbelievable.
「……This.」
She touched the deployed hologram monitor with trembling fingers.
「It's not synchronization rate or anything……」
Soran’s purple logs (equations) that had filled the space were being rewritten one after another before her eyes into irregular golden waveforms.
CENTRAL CONTROL : OFFLINE（Central Command: Abandoned）
INDIVIDUAL RESONANCE : ACTIVE（Individual Resonance: Activated）
UNKNOWN SIGNAL...（Unknown Signal）
CANNOT DEFINE...（Cannot Define）
「Cannot…… define……」
While looking at the monitor where the equations pleasantly collapsed‚ she involuntarily let out a laugh.
「Fufu…… ahaha!」
Completely defeated as an analyst‚ yet rejoicing from the bottom of her heart as one clumsy band member (comrade). It was the most beautiful smile.
On the other hand.
For the first time‚ Soran slightly——but definitely——wavered those cold violet eyes.
「……Individual resonance?」
Incomprehensible. To him‚ the ruler of the serial circuit‚ it was impossible to understand.
Because the incalculable "heat of life" was about to be born with intense light right before his absolute-zero eyes.
——Thump.
Starting from the 'Ancient Heart Fragment' pulsing in my left chest‚ the golden echoes warmly connected all our retinas.
Visible melodies (particles of light) vividly rose into the frozen arena air.
「Listen!」
The words naturally overflowed from the bottom of my lungs.
「This is my answer.」
I didn't need a baton. I myself could play the melody as a muddy instrument.
The golden sound overflowing from my chest began to envelop the world while gently melting the absolute-zero silence.
No one was commanding. No one was dominating. Yet our scattered heartbeats overlapped in a mysteriously beautiful way.
「Whoa! What what!? I can hear music! This is Aria's sound!」
Rinne shouted with sparkling eyes‚ still gripping her ladle.
Next to laugh was Cross. With a body covered in wounds where the petrification frost had vanished‚ he strongly shouldered his greatsword again.
「Conductor-dono.」
He turned with a ferocious baring of fangs.
「We don't need any more detailed instructions‚ right?」
I laughed with all my might.
「Yeah. Go wild as you like!」
「Roger that！！」
——DOOOOOOON！！
Before my reply even finished‚ Cross shattered the stone pavement and leaped.
「This is bad! When I surrender myself to this sound‚ my body feels unbelievably light！！！」
「Hey musclehead!」
Mark shouted as if exasperated.
「That's not even a plan anymore‚ it's just rampaging!」
「Don't care！」
Cross laughed it off grandly.
「Right now I feel the absolute best！」
「Right! It doesn't make sense but it's the best！」
「Just get on board‚ Gale！」
「……Tch！」
The corners of Mark's mouth rose wildly.
「Look closely! I'm already on board！！」
——PAAN！！
Neon-mint sparks exploded from the magic boots.
This time‚ no one decided the route. Even Mark himself didn't know his next step.
「Right！」
「Left！」
「No‚ above！！」
「Don't change it every second！」
「Because Aria's sound is bursting and my soul (mood) wants to do it! Can't be helped！！」
Cross burst into laughter.
「GAHAHAHA！！ The best！！」
At that moment‚ Zephyra's glass-ball-like eyes guarding Soran's formation wavered slightly.
「……Trajectory.」
Wrong. The vacuum blade sliced the sky.
「Correction.」
Wrong. Mark further refracted and slipped through the preemptive wind wall.
「Prediction…… impossible.」
The course. The speed. Changed every second.
Before the central processing (system) of Soran's camp could finish processing‚ they had already moved to the "next mood (action)."
＊
「Liam！」
「Yes！」
Liam holding his massive shield. But this time he didn't wait for "receiving."
「Here I go! No‚ please let me go! Actually‚ I'm already moving！！」
「Eh?」
Cross‚ rampaging in the vanguard‚ widened his eyes in shock.
「Hey‚ the shieeeeld！？」
Liam had thrown his massive 'Bell Shield‚' which was also half his body‚ like a disc toward Valt's barrier.
「You threw it！？」
「Is there a tank that throws the heaviest shield！？」
Mark shouted the retort. Liam himself shouted back with teary eyes.
「I don't know either! Aria-dono's sound‚ my heart‚ is shouting to do it！！」
「You don't even understand yourself！」
The massive shield rotated in the air and collided diagonally with Valt's multilayer barrier.
——GOOOOOONG！！
Bell sound. Reverberation. Reflection. Resonance.
No one calculated it. Yet the randomly reflected sounds created by accidental collision disturbed Zephyra's vacuum and drew out Mark's new trajectory.
＊
「Kotone！」
「It's impossible! What is this！！ It's too random‚ too fun‚ my head can't keep up！！」
Kotone shouted as if literally throwing away the deployed hologram monitors. Her glasses slipped‚ her hair disheveled.
「Aaaaaah‚ theory abandoned! Aria-kun! Listening to your clumsy sound makes the 'correct' world I was clinging to seem ridiculously small！！」
With the most refreshing smile‚ she spread both arms toward the battlefield.
「Everyone‚ do whatever you want！！ I'll fix everything afterward！！」
「「「Roger！！」」」
I laughed.
（Not yet…… spread more‚ more‚ our sound. Reach even Iris…… you in the medical ward！！！）
As if answering that wish‚ the golden echo pulsed largely in my chest.
Thump——.
Once. Again.
Each time the sound shook someone's heart‚ it called forth new sound and spread endlessly into the world.
「Lag！」
「Make mistakes！」
「But don't stop！！」
＊
Thump. Cross laughs.
Thump. Mark flies.
Thump. Liam catches the bounced shield in the air.
Thump. Rinne rushes to the front line.
「Take this！！ Secret Technique - Fivefold Miso！！！」
「What the hell is that technique name！」
「The momentum of the soul！」
「I still don't get the meaning！！」
The violent miso-colored steam blast unleashed from the stockpot dyed the battlefield brown.
But this time‚ Zephyra completely lost sight of Mark's trajectory hidden in the impure blast.
「……Disappeared?」
No. It wasn't hidden in the smoke.
The 'irrational choice' of jumping into the smoke (noise) itself——did not exist in their logic.
＊
On the other hand‚ Soran standing on the absolute-zero throne slightly furrowed his well-shaped brows for the first time.
「……Update.」
He swung the cracked takt.
「Update.」
He swung again.
「Update.」
He swung further.
But right as he rewrote‚ our sound overflowed the frame. The score of death just wouldn't complete.
「……Why.」
The cold silver eyes wavered slightly.
「Why…… does the waveform change every second?」
＊
「No……! No‚ no……! Please‚ don't deny Soran-sama's 'proof of existence'！」
Beside Soran‚ Ceres clasped her hands as if praying and spilled painful tears from her amethyst eyes for the first time.
＊
Behind Soran. Inside Elze's silver-rimmed glasses‚ the blue logs had begun running completely wild.
UPDATE...
UPDATE...
UPDATE...
ERROR
ERROR
UNKNOWN PATTERN（Unknown Waveform）
「No way……」
A voice that should have been emotionless trembled faintly.
「The calculation…… won't converge……！」
The deployed holograms successively turned into fatal red (alerts).
CANNOT DEFINE（Cannot Define）
LEARNING FAILED（Learning Failed）
UNKNOWN GROWTH（Unknown Growth）
「Unknown‚ number……」
Elze gasped for the first time in her life.
「This is…… a bug called 'growth'……?」
The moment she uttered that illogical word‚ something small and irregular trembled deep in her own chest.
「Soran-sama！」
A scream-like voice cut through the cold air.
「Unpredictable！」
It was the first time. The first time the perfect her had given Soran a 'defeat report' that was not one hundred percent.
＊
Soran quietly glanced at her behind him.
「……Impossible.」
He turned forward again and stared at us.
「In a completed score. Unknown factors. Do not exist.」
His voice still maintained coldness.
However——only the right hand wearing the white glove gripping the takt trembled ever so slightly‚ but definitely.
＊
「Aria！」
From the vanguard‚ Cross turned with a full-faced smile.
「This is the best！」
「Yeah！」
Covered in mud‚ I smiled back.
「Right now‚ not a single one of us is playing the same sound even in this very moment.」
「Therefore」
「We will continue to change as long as we live.」
「Because we are growing into 'different us' in the next instant！」
I thrust my finger straight at the trembling Soran.
「You can no longer predict us！！」
At that decisive declaration——Soran’s violet eyes wavered greatly from the root for the first time.
Never born from a completed lonely score of death.
A living symphony that only we‚ unfinished and clumsy‚ can play——unpredictable by anyone.
That muddy "sound" had finally begun carving a fatal crack (break) into the absolute-zero silence.
——Crack！
A decisive fissure ran through the absolute-zero space dominating the arena.
The golden echoes connecting all our heartbeats ate through the ice wall of dead silence from the inside and shattered it brilliantly. Freely‚ endlessly.
While resonating with the muddy music played by me without a takt.
Our comrades' sounds continued to overlap without limit.
While lagging.
While laughing.
While clumsily failing.
Yet never stopping‚ always moving forward.
「……Impossible.」
Soran’s cold voice wavered greatly for the first time in his life. His silver eyes desperately chased the golden melody drawing unpredictable trajectories.
「Why.」
He swung the cracked takt. Forcibly rewrote the score. Calculated. Corrected.
But——the moment he derived the optimal solution‚ we were already no longer there.
「Update.」
Too late.
「Update.」
Can't catch up.
「Update——！」
Before his serial processing finished‚ relying on each other's sounds‚ we had already changed into the "next sound."
Cross laughed grandly.
Mark laughed defiantly.
Liam laughed in relief.
Rinne laughed scattering tears.
Kotone laughed abandoning theory.
Even those smiles carrying body heat became new waveforms every second‚ rewriting the world.
「No way……」
Behind Soran‚ inside Elze's silver-rimmed glasses‚ the inorganic retinas were dyed in bright red error.
SYSTEM FAILURE（System Collapse）
CENTRAL CALCULATION LOST（Central Calculation Lost）
PERFECT SCORE...（The perfect score is……）
NOT FOUND（Not Found）
「Soran-sama……！」
The once flat voice trembled with emotion for the first time.
The hologram monitor shattered‚ and no matter what equation she played‚ 'answer' would no longer display.
Soran quietly exhaled a terribly cold breath.
「The completed score……」
He muttered with trembling lips.
「The completed me……」
Inside his brain‚ the outcome had already been decided long ago. Precisely because he could calculate more perfectly than anyone‚ he inevitably understood that their win rate had reversed to 'absolute zero'.
Those words were never spun to the end.
I took one step forward onto the frozen stone pavement.
I held no takt. No weapon. What I had——was only this hot heartbeat overlapping with my comrades.
「Soran.」
At my call‚ he raised his face.
The silver eyes were no longer those of a cold conductor——but carried the color of a terribly lonely boy.
「I had always overlapped you with my mother‚ who discarded me as a 'failure'. ……That's why I tried to defeat you.」
「……」
「But I was wrong.」
From my chest‚ the golden echo spread as quiet ripples.
「What I wanted to overcome wasn't you. It wasn't becoming perfect or completing myself.」
A gentle silence fell over the arena.
「A single girl taught me. Magic (music) isn't for defeating someone. It's for everyone to laugh together.」
I looked up at the sky closed by ice.
「So‚ Soran. You can change someday too. The score that binds you can be repainted as much as you want. Even a failure like me was able to change.」
I turned and looked at my muddy comrades.
Rinne was crying and smiling while gripping her ladle.
Cross strongly gave a thumbs up with his wounded thumb.
Liam gently smiled while lovingly holding his shattered bell shield.
Mark showed the most defiant expression while pressing his torn shoulder.
Kotone wiped the tears behind her crooked glasses and proudly puffed out her chest.
「From now on we will fail. Make mistakes. Get lost. Cry. ——Even so.」
I gently placed my hand on my left chest. Deep inside the sewn anti-magic fiber‚ the ancient heart fragment pulsed warmly with a *thump*.
「Tomorrow's sound will be even more wonderful than today's.」
The moment those words echoed——the ebony takt slipped from Soran's trembling fingertips.
——Clatter.
A dry sound striking the stone pavement.
A faint crack ran across the takt that was his very "perfect theory." One. Two. Three.
And——.
——Crack！
It was a terribly quiet sound. Yet that rupture echoed louder than any roar in the world to everyone's ears.
The ebony takt shattered into pieces.
Simultaneously‚ the absolute-zero silence covering the arena collapsed with a sound.
The white walls of the barrier shattered. The heavy ice sky split open.
From the cross-section of the sky above——a dazzlingly clear blue sky appeared.
A warm wind blew in. Golden petal-like echoes danced up into the liberated sky like a blessing.
Soran quietly dropped to one knee before the shattered fragments of the takt.
「The completed me…… loses? Then this theory. The equations my mother left…… were incomplete from the very beginning……?」
He laughed with a small self-mockery. But——that smile‚ as if a taut string had snapped‚ somehow looked like it had been released from a long curse.
「So this is your arrival point‚ Aria.」
I shook my head sideways.
「No. There was never any win or loss from the beginning. ……If there was a difference‚ it was that you thought your score was 'completed'. That you accepted the world's destruction within the loneliness called perfection.」
Soran said nothing. He simply stared quietly at the takt fragments scattered at his feet.
A shadow silently approached beside him.
It was Ceres.
She gently snuggled up to the kneeling Soran and overlapped her hand with his cold white one.
（……You have one too‚ don't you?）
A warm 'noise' that would remain by your side even after the perfect theory collapsed.
I quietly lowered my gaze and looked at my own right hand.
The whitening hadn't stopped. From the fingertips to near the elbow‚ snow-like 'white' that rejected life clung thickly.
I gripped the pocket watch at my waist.
『85 days 10 hours 33 minutes』
My remaining life was still reduced. No miracle had occurred. Nothing was resolved. The future waiting for us was by no means kind.
Even so.
「……Haha.」
A smile naturally overflowed.
Clumsy or pathetic‚ I could laugh from the bottom of my heart.
There were comrades who would get muddy together with me. A place to return to. And——there was still tomorrow.
It was then.
Riding the warm wind blowing through‚ a nostalgic‚ beloved voice caressed my eardrums.
『——It was a good sound.』
Iris.
Her figure was invisible. She should be sleeping in a bed far away in the medical ward. Even so‚ she was definitely——right beside me‚ smiling like the sun.
『Aria. I…… love that sound.』
I laughed out loud.
Our comrades' heartbeats naturally overlapped‚ and the world played a single warm symphony.
I quietly looked up at the sky. Toward the unseen tomorrow beyond the darkening blue sky.
「Yeah.」
I smiled and answered.
「It's not over yet. Because we——are still incomplete.」
---
New Chapter 15 'Incomplete Symphony' End
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