When the teleportation beam washed over her eyes, Yotsuya Miko instinctively shut them.
When she opened them again.
The bloody, damp stench that had hung over the Chimera Ants' nest had dispersed.
In its place was a slightly cool evening breeze, the sweet aroma of popcorn mixed with cotton candy, and the distant rattle of a roller coaster's tracks as it whooshed past.
And there was also the sudden sensation of a foreign object in her palm.
"Huh?"
Yotsuya Miko spread open her palm, staring at the somewhat dimmed Universal Capsule, her eyes full of astonishment.
Before she could even open her mouth, Chris had already spoken, sounding a little surprised:
"Looks like an ordinary Stone Mask can't be carried out of the exam hall, but for that batch the Heavenly Artisans' Guild logged into the shop, the Black Sphere actually cut you some slack and left this bloodline to you."
"Though if you think about it, it makes sense. Otherwise, recycling a Stone Mask only gives 4 S-Points, but taking it out of the shop to sell costs 10... If they didn't even throw you a bone of value there, they really would be maggots with blackened hearts."
Yotsuya Miko blinked, her train of thought branching out from Chris's words:
"In that case... we could actually give every classmate a chance to obtain a vampire bloodline for free, right?"
Chris glanced at her and reminded her:
"First off, our tests are always from four to five in the afternoon. No matter the season, there's basically still some sunset at that hour."
"Taking ten thousand steps back—even in a large-scale exam, if you really turned into a vampire, it would mean that at least during the daytime you'd be a useless wretch who dies the moment they see light."
Chris stroked his chin: "And besides, I really don't think a bloodline is like a Stand disc—something you can just freely swap in and out with a wristwatch."
Yotsuya Miko thought it over carefully and found it did make sense.
A vampire's weakness was too fatal. If she got hit by direct sunlight in an exam hall, one death could easily turn into dying several times over.
That would just be far too painful.
"But the cost-effectiveness really is pretty high," Yotsuya Miko muttered under her breath. "10 S-Points... under specific circumstances, it could let most of the classmates who don't have Combat Suits effectively own an alternative kind of Combat Suit..."
Chris didn't refute that point.
For cannon fodder struggling at the bottom, turning into a vampire to scrape by was always better than going to die empty-handed.
Just as the two of them were talking.
"Senior!? Miko! You're back!"
Accompanied by a cry brimming with pleasant surprise.
Chris turned his head to look.
He saw Ichinose Honami crouching at the very spot where they'd vanished.
Perhaps because she'd held the crouching posture for too long, the moment she stood up her legs went weak, and her whole body instinctively lurched forward in a stagger.
Chris was quick of eye and hand, hurrying forward to catch her by the arm:
"You've just been crouching here this whole time waiting?"
Ichinose Honami steadied herself with the help of Chris's hand, feeling the soreness and numbness in her legs gradually fade, and only then straightened up again, her cheeks faintly red:
"Because I wasn't sure whether you'd reappear in the same spot after finishing the exam, so... I just kept waiting here the whole time..."
Chris sighed somewhat helplessly:
"It's not like you don't know the test's duration—an hour at the very most. Even if you were going to wait, couldn't you have found somewhere to sit and wait?"
But Ichinose shook her head: "I was worried about you..."
"And besides, I was even more afraid that when the Black Sphere teleported you back, it might block everyone's perception."
"I was afraid that if I walked away, I wouldn't be able to recognize you at first glance and reunite with you."
Listening to the girl's heartfelt, slightly silly outpouring.
Chris's heart stirred faintly, and he turned to gently console her in a low voice:
"Alright, let's not talk about all that for now. This isn't school—there are too many eyes and ears around."
"And this perception interference probably won't stay on the whole time. We don't want it judging that you leaked secrets in a bit and docking you a life."
At that, Ichinose hurriedly reached up to cover her own mouth, her big eyes darting around, her whole face the picture of cute, guilty unease.
Standing off to the side, Yotsuya Miko watched this scene and, for some reason...
Suddenly felt that standing here she seemed a little too superfluous.
Like a dog by the roadside, walking along just fine, when out of nowhere it gets a kick.
Still, Miko took advantage of the gap while the two were busy being lovey-dovey and had no attention to spare for her.
She quietly turned her head to look around, trying to find some trace of Shiranami Chihiro in the flow of people at the amusement park.
As expected, her field of vision was perfectly clean—she didn't see any sign of her.
Maybe because there was no me serving as an anchor, Shiranami has already been forcibly teleported back to her own home?
Honestly, Miko was really troubled right now, not knowing what she should do.
She really wanted to go back to Shiranami Chihiro's place to confirm the other girl's safety.
But she didn't know what excuse to use to bring it up with Ichinose.
If she just laid her cards on the table with Ichinose and told her that Chihiro had become a ghost...
What if, because I told her, Ichinose could also see Shiranami Chihiro, causing her to violate the Black Sphere's contract and thereby trigger the Black Sphere's rules, turning Shiranami into a vengeful spirit right on the spot?!
This risk of good intentions backfiring might exist, or it might just be her own wild imagining.
But no matter how Miko turned it over, she couldn't make up her mind.
This problem was too hard—she couldn't solve it...
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Ichinose Honami, after calming her emotions, noticed Miko hanging her head and saying nothing.
She assumed Miko was feeling a little down at being ignored by her.
Ichinose blamed herself a little too...
A moment ago her eyes had been full of nothing but Senior, leaving classmate Yotsuya—who'd been dragged into danger alongside them—out in the cold. That really wasn't right.
But there was genuinely no helping it.
No matter how kind and all-loving Ichinose's nature might be, as a human she would always inevitably prioritize the safety of the people she cared about. That was instinct.
Ichinose gave a light cough, and once her expression had returned to normal, she somewhat reluctantly let go of Chris's arm.
She leaned in close to Yotsuya Miko and asked softly:
"Classmate Yotsuya... are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Yotsuya Miko snapped back to her senses and hurriedly waved her hands:
"No no no, I'm fine."
"I just... went through too much, and feel a bit emotionally drained, that's all."
Ichinose nodded understandingly:
"Mm. Anyone who went through everything you went through wouldn't have done any better than you."
"You were already very brave."
"Oh right, Miko!" Ichinose suddenly proposed. "Didn't we agree earlier that we'd ride the roller coaster? Let's go now! Let the wind up high help you forget all those bad memories for a while!"
Yotsuya Miko's expression stiffened.
In her mind, the scene of plummeting through the air just now instantly replayed.
The corner of her mouth twitched, and she lowered her head, mumbling feebly in a low voice:
"Um... I literally just finished a bungee jump an hour ago..."
"Could we switch to something a little less thrilling?"
Ichinose was taken aback for a moment, then scratched her head a bit sheepishly:
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't think it through."
"Then... let's go ride the Ferris wheel? It's almost evening now, so there are fewer people in line. We should be able to get a whole car to ourselves..."
To this relatively gentle proposal, Yotsuya Miko didn't refuse this time.
As the Ferris wheel slowly rose into the air.
Through the glass, before her eyes was the skyline dyed a brilliant orange-red in the afterglow of the setting sun.
Below was a clean, beautiful modern metropolis untainted by any anomaly.
Streams of traffic, and the lights of ten thousand households gradually flickering on.
For some reason, watching this scene, Yotsuya Miko suddenly felt...
Things being like this were actually pretty nice.
Even if every day she had to set aside an hour to take part in the Black Sphere exam.
As long as during all the other time, everyone could enjoy the normal life of ordinary people like they were now...
It seemed, perhaps, to be an acceptable price.
Compared to Miko's serenity.
Ichinose Honami, because in this enclosed space holding just the three of them she no longer had to worry about being punished for leaking information.
So, breaking all precedent, she let go of her usual reserve and pestered Chris with all sorts of questions about the exam's details.
At first.
When she heard that her same-grade peers Shiraishi Asuka and Shiina Hiyori, and even Kushida Kikyo, had been selected and dragged into the exam hall.
Ichinose pressed her lips tightly together, as if regretting why she hadn't been chosen, hadn't been able to go protect everyone.
But as Chris's account went deeper.
When she heard that, in order to protect Shiina Hiyori and Shiraishi Asuka, Chris had ended up successfully ambushed by the dead Cat Woman's Death Whisper.
This regret at not having been able to go along instantly changed in nature.
It transformed into an anxious, clingy fear, and... an inexplicable sour, vinegary jealousy!
Ichinose Honami lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes.
Even though she knew full well that this kind of thought was extremely dark and selfish.
Ichinose still couldn't stop herself from beginning to silently sulk inside.
Both classmate Shiraishi and classmate Shiina knew perfectly well in their hearts that Senior, as a Fixed Participant, was forced to take part in the exam every single time, walking the edge of life and death in order to protect everyone.
So then, when they ran into that kind of danger... why couldn't they have been willing to sacrifice themselves a little for Senior...?
'If it were me, I definitely would...!'
The instant this terrifying thought surfaced.
Ichinose herself got a fright from it.
Precisely because she knew it was wrong, Ichinose only stiffened for a moment before forcibly pressing this somewhat corrupted thought back down.
She turned her head, pretending to admire the sunset outside the window, trying to use that to disguise her abnormal expression.
After a good while, once her emotions had settled a bit, she turned her face to the side and, looking out the window, spoke to Chris:
"Oh right, Senior, who was the winner of this advance test?"
"This time you didn't have to face the monster head-on. With your strength, you could totally have gone and contested for the winner's spot, couldn't you..."
Chris leaned back against the seat and answered offhandedly:
"Oh, this time I didn't grab it."
"The goods in this exam—the expensive ones were extra expensive, and the cheap ones extra cheap. The gap was severe. So if you wanted to buy something good, you could only concentrate your resources."
"Plus some classmates really did have pretty bad luck, and limited strength too... so I didn't compete with them for ranking."
He paused, then chuckled softly:
"Still, before I left, I left behind a miniature hydrogen bomb."
"By a rough tally... the S-Points in my account right now should be pretty considerable."
After all, the Chimera Ants' nest was huge.
Being able to grow to such a scale actually meant someone had already let it wipe out a small nation of five hundred thousand people.
Naturally, there were a great many Chimera Ants inside.
Even if you handed Ayanokoji and Nagumo Miyabi a Shadow Clone, without killing for several days and nights there'd be no way to clear them all out.
Five hundred thousand—that's five hundred thousand steamed buns. Even just gnawing through them would take them a good half a month or more.
It was only because the Ant Queen ran into trouble at the time, and the news of the Ant King and the Three Royal Guards dying in battle got out, that those Division Commanders with a certain degree of intelligence all stayed in the central position to protect the Ant Queen and didn't dare act rashly.
Otherwise, relying on Kiryuuin and the others alone to easily hunt Chimera Ant eggs and farm points after Nagumo Miyabi's group left would absolutely have been no easy task.
Come to think of it, before Chris left, that pack of Chimera Ants who'd lost their backbone actually wanted to find him to surrender and beg for mercy, didn't they.
A pity it was already too late by then.
Chris figured that, while he wasn't any kind of good person, he definitely couldn't be counted as bad either.
He decided to leave a gift behind, treating it as obtaining a measure of justice for those several hundred thousand people.
Ichinose Honami finished listening.
Her heart couldn't help but swell with countless emotions.
Senior was always lecturing me before, telling me to be a little more selfish in an environment like this.
But when it actually came down to the critical moment... his own way of doing things was really no different from mine at all.
Always leaving the best chance of survival for others, while silently shouldering the risk himself.
What's this supposed to be? A sharp tongue and a soft heart?
So bashful... why does it somehow feel inexplicably a bit cute.
Just as Ichinose was inwardly amused and turned her head, wanting to lecture Chris back for a change.
"Bzzt—"
"Bzzt—"
The phone in Chris's pocket vibrated at the most inopportune moment.
Actually, before this, Chris's phone had already sounded its message notification tone several times.
It was just that the two of them had been chatting at the time, so Chris had ignored it.
But while Chris could casually treat it as nothing, Ichinose couldn't...
For a girl caught in inner turmoil, the more she didn't want him to answer the phone, the more her subconscious told her she couldn't let it show that she was a jealous woman who liked to check up on him.
Ichinose took a deep breath, forced down the words that had reached the tip of her tongue, and put on a strained smile:
"Senior, why don't you... go ahead and check your phone after all?"
"When the two of you got unexpectedly selected as intruders, I went and asked classmate Karuizawa..."
"Right now, they're probably very worried about your safety too."
Chris glanced, somewhat amused, at Ichinose—her face full of contradiction, obviously caring to death yet still trying to act magnanimous.
He pulled out his phone.
Swiping the screen to check the messages while murmuring with a touch of feeling, as if caught off guard:
"Karuizawa Kei... Horikita Suzune... Kamuro Masumi... Sakayanagi Arisu..."
"Oh? And Shiina Hiyori and Shiraishi Asuka too? Why are there so many people..."
Seeing that Chris was about to keep reading down the list.
The sour water in Ichinose Honami's heart finally overflowed.
She couldn't help puffing up her rosy cheeks and griped with a hint of pique:
"With this many girls who care about you, Senior, you really are popular, huh."
"Senior, why don't you just go ahead and make a group chat, pull everyone into it, and report you're safe all at once in the group to clear it all up!"
At that, Chris suddenly slapped his thigh:
"Hey! Great idea!"
"Our class president really is the considerate one—efficiency above all!"
With that, his fingers tapped lightly.
In less than half a minute.
Ichinose Honami's phone buzzed once.
She lowered her head to look.
And found that she really had been pulled into a newly created chat group.
And when she opened the member list to look... it was all the names Chris had just been reciting!
Ichinose Honami was completely dumbstruck.
She looked up at Chris and, pressing her lips together, on the verge of tears with none to shed:
"...Senior! I was just joking a moment ago!"
Chris merely glanced at her and said, amused:
"Huh? You were joking?"
"And here I thought you were sincerely giving me a suggestion because you found me too slow at replying to messages."
Sitting across from the two of them, Yotsuya Miko watched this interaction that seemed like the prelude to a love-rivals showdown.
And once again tactfully chose to shut her mouth.
She turned her head.
Better to just keep looking at the distant sunset, folks...
Honestly, bathed in the setting sun.
Even the filthiest vengeful spirit in this world seemed to become a kind of scenery, to have gained a reason for its existence.
Still... a sudden question flashed through Yotsuya Miko's mind.
'From what Ichinose said, classmate Kushida, who hid behind senior Kiryuuin together with me just now, seems to be one of the veteran participants who were selected by the Black Sphere the earliest, right?'
'Then why did she... act even more frightened than me just now?'
Yotsuya Miko didn't quite understand.
Could it be that she actually has the same unspeakable difficulties as me, and can only force herself to put on a very practiced act?
'Sigh, looks like classmate Kushida has it rough too...'
Before the night deepened.
The group ended their amusement-park outing, hailed a taxi, and returned to Advanced Nurturing High School.
Getting out of the car, just as they reached the school gate.
Before they could even step onto campus, Chris, under the dim yellow streetlight, spotted a familiar figure.
But, to his slight disappointment.
It wasn't a girl, but a rough dude.
Though in a certain sense, Hirata Yousuke could also count as a mother hen...
Seeing Chris, Ichinose, and the others appear, Hirata Yousuke's face lit up with joy, and he hurried over with quick steps.
"Chris, Ichinose! You're finally back."
Hirata Yousuke got straight to the point:
"I heard from Kushida that you two were forcibly pulled into the advance test by the Black Sphere this afternoon."
"Since you've come back safe... then why is Ayanokoji nowhere to be seen?"
Hirata Yousuke's brows were tightly knit, his eyes full of worry:
"I called him several times and no one picked up. I went to his dorm and no one was there either... Could it be that something went wrong for him in the exam hall?!"
Hearing Hirata press the question.
Chris raised an eyebrow, sounding rather surprised:
"He's not back?"
"That shouldn't be. This exam was only half over when the Black Sphere exam's target was already wiped out completely."
Chris stroked his chin: "After that, the highest score among the mob enemies in the exam hall didn't even exceed thirty. With Ayanokoji's current combat power, there's no way he could've been killed by them several times in a row and had his lives zeroed out, right?"
Hirata Yousuke was puzzled: "If something didn't go wrong for him in the exam hall, then where could he have gone?"
Chris paused.
And spoke tentatively:
"As I recall, the monsters that intruders hunt down in the exam hall also get counted in the Black Sphere system..."
"Ayanokoji killed quite a few vampires in the exam he went into, so he'd already racked up a sum of points in the first place. If in this exam, he and Nagumo Miyabi had kill targets, and then he padded the score by hunting the Chimera Ants left behind on the field..."
Chris raised his head and looked at Hirata:
"At his efficiency, it's very possible he gathered a full hundred S-Points before the final settlement."
Hirata Yousuke was taken aback for a moment.
Then his eyes suddenly went wide:
"You mean to say..."
"Ayanokoji, using these hundred points, directly wished to the Black Sphere to withdraw from school?!"
At that, Ichinose Honami's face was full of shock: "Withdraw...?"
"Someone actually succeeded in breaking free of the Black Sphere's control?!"
Facing the two of them's shock.
Chris waved a hand:
"This is all just my own personal conjecture."
"As for what exactly happened, next time we take part in the exam, we can just go straight into the Black Sphere Space and ask GANTZ."
"Anyway, asking about a person's whereabouts isn't some shameful secret. Worst case, we spend a few S-Points to buy the intel, that's all."
Hirata Yousuke let out a helpless sigh. Although he still felt a bit unsettled inside, he had no choice but to accept this reality.
"Sigh... right now, this is the only way."
"I hope he really did get away successfully, just like you guessed."
____
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