Opening her eyes, the harsh glare of the incandescent lights left Kamuro Masumi barely able to keep them open.
With the clamor of voices and the sound of rolling suitcase wheels scraping against the floor reaching her ears, she instinctively raised a hand to shield her forehead and looked around.
Beyond the huge floor-to-ceiling windows stretched a vast tarmac; inside the terminal, people came and went, and all around hung signs entirely in English, along with old-fashioned flip-board display boards.
'An airport?' Kamuro Masumi sat frozen on the bench, her brain briefly crashing.
Didn't I just die and was waiting to be resurrected...?
Could it be I've remembered it wrong—that I'd actually died once long ago, and so I was reincarnated outright?
And now my soul had transmigrated into the body of some chic city woman in the Beautiful Country, about to board a flight for a business trip?
Kamuro Masumi pinched the bridge of her nose.
She felt like she was starting to lose it.
But to be fair, compared to a chuunibyou setup like "a high school girl who saves the world," being a chic city woman was definitely easier to accept.
Unfortunately, when Kamuro Masumi looked down and saw the Advanced Nurturing High School uniform on her body, the corner of her mouth twitched, and she fully faced reality.
The dream shattered.
Not only was she still a hapless high schooler, but she had clearly been dumped into a new location by the Black Sphere again.
"So then, why have I shown up here this time?"
Kamuro Masumi sighed and simply leaned back against the bench. Unable to figure it out for now, she just decided to slack off entirely.
As long as she didn't run off recklessly and just stayed put, hunkering down and waiting for her big daddy to come save the day—that couldn't go wrong, right?
And just as she closed her eyes, lost in thought.
"Ding-dong—"
An English announcement chime suddenly came over the broadcast, seemingly urging passengers to board as soon as possible.
Kamuro Masumi instinctively fumbled with her fingers and suddenly felt something extra between them.
She straightened her back, looked down, and found that a plane ticket had somehow appeared in her hand.
Half believing, half doubting, she compared the ticket information in her hand against the flight numbers on the display board...
'What's this supposed to mean...? It wants me to get on the plane?'
Illusion or dream—is no one going to come and explain it?
She murmured under her breath, yet showed no intention whatsoever of getting up.
After all, she'd suddenly appeared in this strange place with an extra plane ticket in her hand.
And on the display board overhead, apart from her flight showing "Now Boarding," every other flight was followed by the word "Canceled."
Anyone with a normal head on their shoulders could tell this flight definitely had something wrong with it!
She, Kamuro Masumi, might not count as smart, but she was absolutely not the kind of fool who'd willingly step on a landmine!
Just as Kamuro Masumi was leisurely grumbling to herself.
A hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.
"Eek!?"
Kamuro Masumi jolted with fright, springing up abruptly, and was about to snap at whoever it was.
But the moment she saw it was Chris, her taut nerves instantly relaxed.
"Hah... it's you! Don't you know scaring someone like that can scare them to death!"
Kamuro Masumi patted her chest, thoroughly annoyed.
Chris withdrew his hand:
"Sorry, I had something to deal with just now and didn't get the chance to call out to you. Now that I'm done, I got a bit impatient."
Kamuro Masumi nodded, taking it as an acceptance.
Then she looked at the three girls following behind Chris.
Yotsuya Miko, Nanase Tsubasa, and Senior Tachibana Akane?
Though she wasn't all that close with these three, Kamuro's memory was fine, and she did at least recognize them.
So Kamuro spoke up with concern: "How come you're all here too? What on earth happened?"
At her words, Tachibana Akane's face went somewhat pale, and she hesitated, words on the tip of her tongue.
Yotsuya Miko and Nanase Tsubasa exchanged glances as well, opening their mouths but not knowing where to begin.
In the end, it was Chris who spoke up to explain:
"To put it simply, it's like the spacetime rifts from the earlier midterm Uninhabited Island exam combined with the even earlier 'intruder' mechanism."
"As the second stage of the exam, there's now a chance that we, as intruders, get randomly dragged into the instance dungeons of other parallel worlds."
Kamuro Masumi pursed her lips, deep in thought:
"In other words, this is also an exam venue? Then what were you busy with just now? Have you already found a way to leave this place?"
Chris didn't respond right away, but instead turned his gaze toward Nanase Tsubasa.
Nanase Tsubasa understood his meaning and stepped forward to explain:
"Before coming here, we came face to face with a monster in a bizarre space... That monster was absurdly strong—in a single encounter, it severed everyone's arms."
"Although Senior Chris and the others later rushed in to save us, when we transferred away, we apparently didn't go along with the main group, but ended up here instead. And because our arms were injured, Senior wanted to take us somewhere to get treated just now."
Tachibana Akane picked up the thread with a bitter smile: "But because the wounds were too severe and we lost too much blood... in fact, we're now in a state of having revived on the spot."
Yotsuya Miko nodded, still shaken:
"And then we ended up back here... By the way, Senior Kamuro, you've been here a while, haven't you? Have you noticed anything strange?"
At this, Kamuro Masumi felt a little awkward.
She could hardly say that, because she couldn't figure things out, she'd just flopped down on this bench and slacked off for half the day, could she?
After pondering for a moment, she held up the ticket in her hand and forced herself to say:
"I'm not clear on the specifics either. But when I found myself dumped here, there was already a plane ticket in my hand. The eerie part is... look at the display board up there—all flights are grounded, only this one is departing. It feels really off."
Chris nodded.
He looked at the boarding prompt flashing on the screen.
"It is indeed strange." Chris narrowed his eyes slightly, then suddenly shifted his tone, "What's more, I also spotted someone unexpected here..."
Chris paused, and Kamuro Masumi and the other girls instinctively followed his line of sight.
Over at the ticket gate, several men in black suits seemed to be clustering around a youth as they came to a stop up ahead.
When she saw the face clearly, Kamuro Masumi was startled:
"That's... Ayanokoji Kiyotaka? Didn't he already spend points to leave school and drop out? How could he still show up here?"
"Could it just be someone who looks like him?"
Chris shook his head:
"If it were just looks, that'd be easy to imitate. But that robotic, NPC-like vibe Ayanokoji gives off—not just anyone can act that out."
Nanase Tsubasa pressed her cherry lips together, gazing thoughtfully below:
"It looks like they split off a few people to take the flight? But not everyone boarded... Did they notice something was off too?"
Chris stroked his chin:
"Since they've taken the initiative to test it out for us, all we need to do is wait for the results."
"Before that, come with me to find somewhere with no one around. I'll see if the Black Sphere's controller still works—if it lets us check the intel on this world's monster, it'll save us some trouble."
Kamuro Masumi thought about it: "I'd say this airport's surveillance equipment is a bit outdated, and there aren't many people around right now, so we can just find any old corner."
With that, she got up of her own accord and led the way.
Chris followed with the girls and soon stopped at a corner.
Seeing Nanase Tsubasa very thoughtfully halt of her own accord and turn to keep watch, Chris raised his wrist and tried to activate the controller.
A three-dimensional screen unfolded in midair.
Unexpectedly, no clear red dot representing a monster appeared.
Instead, above several green dots representing humans in the airport, there hung a faint red halo.
Chris raised an eyebrow and tried tapping it.
Along with that, an intel image appeared.
"BOOM—!!!"
In that instant, the passenger plane outside the window, which had just taken off not long before, exploded in midair without any warning—
The massive shockwave shattered the glass curtain wall right beside them!
A fierce wind howled, mixed with debris.
And on the controller screen in front of Chris:
[Target: Grim Reaper]
[Traits: Has no physical body and never acts directly; it is the embodiment of "causality / fate-correcting force." Its core abilities are "orchestrating fatal accidents, settling accounts with those who escaped death, and tampering with the chains of fate." It maintains the order of death, corrects disrupted death lists, and makes those destined to die perish through various accidents.]
[Note: Because this is a time-limited instance, to clear it you need only survive past 24 hours.]
[But now, because of the intrusion of you otherworlders, the Grim Reaper's list has been thrown into disarray. And now, your names have appeared on the death list.]
...
Elsewhere, in the world of Chainsaw Man.
As Denji transformed into Chainsaw Man, roaring as he locked in a deadly clash with Santa Claus.
Rubble flew between the floors, and flesh and blood splattered everywhere.
And up above, at the edge of a relatively safe floor's broken ledge.
Under the repairs of [Crazy Diamond], Quanxi, her body now fully restored, slowly rose from the ground.
She glanced below, then turned her head and stared fixedly at Horikita Suzune.
"Your ability..." "Can it bring back to life Fiends who've been remade into puppets?"
Since Santa Claus had already devoured a slice of the Darkness Devil's flesh and gained a huge boost in strength.
Then given that ability, Quanxi had no doubt that the several Fiend girlfriends who weren't with her had already met with misfortune by now.
But Horikita Suzune didn't give her the assurance she wanted, only telling the plain truth:
"Crazy Diamond's ability is restoration. As long as they're not completely dead, even if their form has changed, it should be able to heal them."
"But I'm not sure—if they've already been converted into puppets... whether that counts as a 'living' mutation, or as a dead husk."
At this point, Amanatsu Kazuha, off to the side, chimed in with a timely reminder:
"Earlier, when Kamuro was touched by a puppet, the Black Sphere directly ruled it as 'death'..."
"Although it can't necessarily serve as an absolute conclusion to go by, it's still best not to hold out too much hope."
At her words, Quanxi lowered her eyelids slightly.
After a moment of silence, she raised her head again: "Your target is Santa Claus, isn't it?"
"I'll kill her for you," Quanxi continued. "In exchange, you try to help me restore my women's bodies."
Horikita Suzune pondered for a moment, then nodded:
"All right. But I can't guarantee I'll definitely be able to bring them back."
"That's fine."
About this, Quanxi was quite calm, betraying no overly intense emotion on her face.
As one of the earliest Devil Hunters, she was well accustomed to life and death; doing all one could and leaving the rest to fate was already the best comfort there was.
She turned around.
Looking at Chainsaw Man and Santa Claus still locked in slaughter below, Quanxi tilted her head and gave an order to the Stitched Fiend following at her side:
"You stay here, with them. Wait for me to come back."
The Stitched Fiend nodded obediently.
Just as Quanxi was about to leap down.
Kouenji Rokusuke spoke up with a reminder:
"Beautiful lady, according to our exam rules, the 'kill' has to be carried out by our own hands to count. If possible, please be sure to leave her with one last breath and hand her over to us."
Quanxi didn't answer.
She merely drew out the arrow hidden in the right eye socket of her eyepatch.
"Shink—!"
Along with the release of the Bow-and-Arrow Devil's Weapon Human form.
She leapt down.
With Denji's transformation into Chainsaw Man as a precedent, the students present didn't show much surprise at Quanxi's transformation.
If anything, given her performance, it would be the most unreasonable thing of all if she were a purely ordinary human.
At this point, Amanatsu Kazuha, who had set out ahead of time to test the strength of Santa Claus's puppets, returned to the rooftop using the Parasytes' climbing ability.
"The situation's looking a little grim."
Amanatsu Kazuha flicked the wood splinters off the Parasytes' blade edge and said gravely:
"I just tested it—the puppets now, boosted by the Darkness Devil's power, can't be killed as easily as before."
"Their vitality is tenacious; even if you cut off the head, they can still move. You have to smash them completely into bits to fully stop them."
Hearing this, Ichinose Honami took a deep breath:
"In that case, let me use the [Love-Love Fruit]'s ability to petrify them all."
Amanatsu Kazuha was surprised at this.
Ichinose could just petrify people at will now?
Where was that confidence coming from?
But she chose to let it pass and turned to Horikita Suzune, urging:
"The most crucial thing right now is to first take a look at this mystery shop's goods..."
Before she'd even finished, Sakayanagi Arisu, cradling the [Romantic Cannon], had already picked up the thread:
"We do need to look. Otherwise, with our current lineup, there's simply no way to complete the task of killing the Darkness Devil."
"Killing... the Darkness Devil?"
Horikita Suzune arched her willow-leaf brows slightly, casting a cool gaze toward Sakayanagi:
"You mean that monster we just ran into?"
Ryuuen Kakeru, leaning against the wall, sighed irritably:
"That's the one—the monster worth two hundred points."
"The presiding god said it's either it dies or we do. Although it also said we could 'skip class'... as long as we kill a primordial devil of the same tier, or one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, that can serve as a substitute."
"But the problem is, the presiding god only left us two hours! Where are we supposed to find another primordial devil now? And even more absurd is that we don't even know how to get back to find the Darkness Devil right now..."
Just as everyone fell into a deadlock.
Makima, who had been standing on the edge all along as if detached from it all, looked over in the direction of Ryuuen Kakeru's voice.
She spoke expressionlessly:
"Primordial devils have never experienced death."
"They've never died, so naturally, they can't possibly be killed."
Hearing these words, Sakayanagi Arisu, far from alarmed, smiled instead.
She turned to look at this woman who had just crossed swords with the Darkness Devil in Hell.
"Miss, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"Since you've fought the Darkness Devil too, we can tentatively count as being on the same side now, right?"
Makima neither confirmed nor denied it, only watching her quietly.
Sakayanagi Arisu, not the least bit afraid, continued to lobby:
"To be honest, because Chris got unexpectedly separated from us, we're now missing our channel for obtaining intel."
"Since you understand devils so well, miss, could you do us a friendly favor and sponsor some intel about the 'Darkness Devil' or other primordial devils?"
Makima lowered her eyelids slightly, as though seriously considering it.
After a moment, she looked up and said in an even tone:
"To truly kill the Darkness Devil, you'll have to go to Hell and face his true body. But as the embodiment of all humanity's fear of 'darkness,' he's practically invincible in the dark."
"He simply fears and detests intense light and flames. But even knowing his weakness... I don't think that with your current strength, you have any way to truly hurt him."
Upon hearing the words "intense light."
Ryuuen Kakeru grinned. "Intense light? Oh, I'm familiar with that stuff..."
He patted his chest: "Simulating the sun's ultraviolet rays—that's a piece of cake."
And in the gap of their conversation.
Horikita Suzune had already pulled up the Black Sphere's shop list.
"Take a look—this is our final trump card."
Everyone looked over at the sound.
[Blank Card Case]: Combined with a script card, you can head to the Mirror World to find a contract beast and form a pact, transforming into the corresponding and stronger Kamen Rider. Before contracting, relying on the blank base body plus a weapon, it can only count as a cheap stand-in for the 'Leo Cavalry.' — Price: 15,000 item points
[Random Girl Transformation Device]: As shown in the image, it will randomly pick out a bishoujo transformation device exclusively for you! There's the melee-specialized 'Pretty Cure,' the 'Kämpfer bracelet' that can turn a boy into a cute girl, and the 'Soul Gem' that grants immunity to physical pain and externalizes the soul... So, why not try your luck? — Price: 35,000 item points
[Ultimate-Level Support Card]: After use, you'll gain a character possessing an 'Ultimate-level talent' as outside assistance in the current exam. Options include: the 'Ultimate Animator,' who can produce videos that brainwash all of humanity, and the 'Ultimate Despair,' who can destroy the entire world single-handedly... — Price: 10,000 item points
[Two-Star Goku Uniform]: After use, it correspondingly strengthens one of your specialty abilities. Woven from the alien life-form 'Life Fibers,' the higher the proportion of fibers it contains, the stronger the ability it grants! Its weakness is the 'Banshi (severing thread)'—cut it and the uniform is destroyed. It can be further enhanced by spending S-points in the presiding god's space, upgrading at most into a one-hundred-percent Life Fiber 'Kamui.' — Price: 10,000 item points
[Enma Blade · Imitation]: A trial product casually whipped up by a certain great inventor in his spare time. Although it lacks the original's mighty power to completely sever space and causality, it still retains the abilities to cut through space, release a 'Dimensional Slash,' and perform spatial teleportation. It can be enhanced into the original version by spending points in the presiding god's space; enhanced to the final version, it comes with a complimentary half-Fiend bloodline. — Price: 80,000 item points
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