Chereads / The Eminence In Shadow / Chapter 36 - Epilogue: Behold, a Full-Fledged Eminence in Shadow!

Chapter 36 - Epilogue: Behold, a Full-Fledged Eminence in Shadow!

Akira Nishino runs down the pure-white corridor.

As the alarm bell heralding the stampede rings, he advances deeper and deeper into the research building. It's almost as though he's deliberately heading away from the battlefield.

Both his arms are taken up with carrying a white box.

"Pant, pant... Shit!"

He stops in front of a white door and curses as he tries to steady his ragged breathing.

"That damn Alliance rat... Now they've gone and done it. I never expected them to make off with Akane...," he mutters, to vent his frustration as he unseals the door's lock.

Inside, there's a pure-white sickroom.

A silver-haired girl is sitting on its bed.

"You're awake? I could have sworn I gave you a sedative..."

The silver-haired girl — Natsume — gives him an adorable tilt of the head.

"The dosage must've been too low. Well, whatever. It's not like you can understand me anyway."

Natsume gives him another head tilt, then looks down and stares quizzically at the white box Akira Nishino is carrying.

"...Curious about the box? This box is going to transform you. You're going to become a stronger knight than even the Original Knight ever was."

When he opens the box, Natsume's eyes widen in surprise.

Inside, there's a cryogenically preserved head.

Sinister black magic weaves coils around its darkened skin and fiery-red hair.

"Surprised? We recovered this from a site we discovered with abnormal magic readings. Eating from this was what let the Brute become the most powerful apex beast we've ever seen."

A malignant smile spreads across Akira Nishino's face as he approaches Natsume.

"The magic hidden within this head in unbelievable. It has a quality to it that none of our magic does... The same way that you do."

He grabs Natsume's arm and pulls out a large syringe.

"The Brute ate from this head and evolved, and now it's your turn to fuse with it and become the greatest knight in the world. Now, let's get this show on the road. With this, you'll be—"

A ptchoo rips through the air, and a bloodstain spreads across Akira Nishino's white lab coat.

"Wha—?"

There's another ptchoo, then another.

Akira Nishino's body jerks back and forth as blood sprays around him and the smell of gunpowder smoke fills the air.

"Th-this can't... It doesn't..."

He drops to his knees.

There's someone behind him holding a gun.

Their high heels audibly click, and they turn their aim to Natsume.

"N-no, don't—"

Ptchoo. The gun recoils.

A dark hole appears on Natsume's forehead. She collapses onto the bed.

Her death was instant.

Akira Nishino's voice rises feebly from the ground. "Why? Why would you do this…?"

The figure turns their gun back to him.

Their eyes meet.

For a brief, fleeting moment, everything is silent.

"Death will come for you soon," the assailant says. "I hope it hurts."

They take the head and the syringe and leave.

"Heh... Heh-heh…. Well, damn..."

A pool of blood spreads out across the white floor.

Akira Nishino can feel the heat in his body drain out alongside the blood.

"So, this is how it ends."

As a researcher, he knows that his attacker was right. He's a dead man.

"And I was so close, too..."

He finally got the material he needed for his research.

He was on the verge of making a warrior more powerful than even the Original Knight. And this time, he was going to be able to control it.

He reaches toward the empty air above him. His hand is wet with his own blood.

As his vision starts to fade, he looks over at the bed.

"Huh…?"

That's when he sees the silver-haired girl abruptly sit up.

For a moment, he assumes it's a hallucination brought about by his blood loss.

After all, he saw her get shot square in the forehead with his own two eyes.

However, the girl then stretches, stands up, and, in the blink of an eye, changes into an all-black outfit.

"What?"

Once again, he doesn't believe his eyes.

She changed into that black bodysuit in a single instant.

She goes on to pull a large black sack seemingly out of nowhere and starts packing stuff into it.

"M-my camera..."

One thing Akira Nishino spots is the camera that he thought he lost.

The girl stuffs his laptop inside the sack, then rummages around the room and takes every electrical appliance she can get her hands on.

The sack bulges as it gets fuller and fuller.

It's made of some material he's never seen. It's black, lustrous, and elastic.

"This one, and this one... Good, now room is all finished done. Next all is left is retrieve head," Natsume says. Her Japanese is oddly dubious.

"Y-you can talk?"

"Am many fluent," she says as un-fluently as can be. "Now, where data is? Am deleting."

"It's in a lab farther inside the building. Do what you like. I knew there were traces that the browser history had been edited, but I never imagined that you were the second rat..."

Natsume flashes him a radiant smile and walks past him.

"Just tell me...one last thing...," he chokes out. "Who are you people...?"

"We are the Shadow Garden," she replies in a low whisper. "We lurk in the darkness and hunt down shadows."

She leaves without making a sound.

"The Shadow..Garden…huh…?"

He's never heard of them.

Do they operate overseas, maybe? Or are they perhaps the kind of organization that never shows its face in the light?

Either way, it means that there are groups in this world the likes of which Akira Nishino never dreamed of.

"I thought I was so close...but I guess...I was further than I thought..."

He looks over to the door the girl disappeared through — and then suddenly, she pops her head back in.

"Am you know FallenAngelofRebellion?" she asks him out of the blue.

"The Fallen Angel of Rebellion? Never heard of it..."

"Good. When I finding them, I kill. Marking my words."

And with that, she leaves. For good this time.

The Fallen Angel of Rebellion must be the organization the Shadow Garden is fighting against.

As Akira Nishino wonders who they could possibly be, he breathes his last.

<<•>>

The knights gather on the base's wall and begin fighting back against the beasts.

The beasts, in turn, drive their sharp claws into the wall and climb it practically like they're running. The knights' efforts to stop them are marred by exhaustion, and despair begins creeping into their expressions.

"Commander Haitani, there's too many of them! We can't hold them all off!"

Knight Commander Haitani has no reply for his soldiers' screams.

"What's going on? Where did all these beasts even come from?"

Haitani brandishes his sword. The beasts falter, and he moves in for the kill.

However, the wall below is covered with more just like it. The beasts' writhing ranks stretch all the way to the horizon.

There aren't supposed to be this many.

No normal stampede has anywhere near this many beasts.

Now, though, they're surging toward the base like they're being drawn to something.

Their numbers, their ferocity... Everything about the situation is abnormal.

"If only she were here... No, not even she would be enough to turn the tide..."

Haitani realizes he should stop talking.

Even though he's in the middle of a battle, there's still a chance someone might overhear him.

And besides, even if their strongest combatant, Akane Nishino, were there, it wouldn't be enough to stop the army of beasts knocking at their door.

At that point, Haitani realizes that he already knows how this battle is going to end.

The only thing waiting for them is their inevitable, inexorable defeat.

"Start evacuating the civilians."

"But Commander, if we do that—"

"All we can do now is buy time for them."

"You're saying we're abandoning the base?!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Haitani has the eyes of a man who's already made his peace. "But we're not fighting so we can throw our lives away. We're fighting so that we can save as many others as we can."

"Commander..."

"I'm splitting the knight order into two groups. One group will be evacuating the civilians through the emergency tunnels. The other will stay here and buy them time."

"Y-yes, sir."

"You — you're in charge of the evacuation efforts. Remember, their lives are in your hands."

Haitani hates futility.

In his eyes, fighting futile battles and losing lives for nothing is a colossal waste.

If there's meaning in the fight, though, he's more than willing to put his life on the line.

Haitani is determined to fight until his dying breath if it means buying a single second more for the evacuating civilians.

However, even that determination can shatter under the weight of true despair.

That despair comes in the form of a roar that sounds like a thunderclap.

The terrible cry reverberates through everything, demanding the attention of all present.

Once it has it, the fearsome beast with its massive amounts of mana appears.

One stock-still knight's choked comment echoes across the battlefield. "I-it's the Brute..."

The beast's overgrown crimson claws and fangs stand stark against the darkness.

It inspires instinctual terror in any who behold it, like a demon straight out of the world of stories.

The Brute leaps too quickly for those awed by it to follow and swings its mighty claws.

The blow it inflicts is despair incarnate.

"What...?! The wall—!"

With but a single attack, the Brute's claws carve deep fissures into the university's bulwark.

If that wall goes down, the base will be defenseless. They'll get overrun in seconds.

They can picture it already.

Another claw strike cleaves through the night.

"N-noooo!"

The shout is powerless to stop the Brute.

It should be, anyhow.

Yet the Brute's crimson claw freezes unnaturally in midair.

Is it heeding that desperate cry?

No, of course not.

At long last, the knights notice the obsidian blade that the Brute is impaled on.

It's piercing the massive beast through from behind. Dark blood trickles down its tip.

A roar of agony erupts from the Brute's mouth.

Then, slowly...

...its massive frame rises into the air.

Slowly — ever so slowly — the blade hoists the Brute aloft.

The beast has been reduced to nothing more than a helpless sacrifice.

Then, under the moon's light, the obsidian blade flips over.

A moment later, the Brute splits in two. A torrent of black blood spills forth.

There, underneath it, stands the man holding the sword.

"—it's him...the Black Knight! The Black Knight is here!"

"H-he killed the Brute in a single blow!"

The quivering voices grow into an ever-expanding stir.

"I-is he here to help us...?"

The Black Knight holds his sword horizontally and squares off against the slavering horde of beasts.

Everyone falls silent again.

The knights' eyes are fixed on the Black Knight's each and every move.

They can tell that something is about to happen.

They don't know what yet.

However, they can tell from the way the air curls around the Black Knight that it's going to defy belief.

Nobody so much as twitches.

The only thing moving is the air.

Light — fathomless specks of light — gather around the Black Knight's sword as he continues holding it level with the ground.

The light then swirls, spiraling in a bluish-purple glow as it converges at the blade's tip.

A new bluish-purple sword extends forth.

It stretches across the ground, all the way to the horizon.

It seems to practically go on forever.

The Black Knight stoops low and draws the sword back.

His voice rumbles like it's coming from the depths of the abyss as it echoes all through the area.

"I AM..."

A tremendous amount of mana gathers on the blade —

"...ATOMIC SWORD."

— and the blade cleaves forth.

A flash of light bisects the night, shredding through all who stand within it.

In its wake, a bluish-purple afterglow drifts by and illuminates everything the sword sliced through.

Everything as far as the eye can see lies slain.

All of it — beasts, trees, and buildings alike — now has a perfect horizonal line cut through it.

"This isn't possible... It shouldn't be possible..."

It's like God himself has come and divided the world into tops and bottoms. The onlooking knights are completely overwhelmed at the unbelievable gravity of what they've just witnessed.

"Who...? What is he...?" Haitani murmurs.

He can't believe that the man who did this, the Black Knight, could possibly be human.

The Black Knight slowly begins to walk. His dark longcoat flutters in the night wind.

His boots click loudly against the ground as he advances toward the base.

"Eep..."

The knights turn and try to flee on reflex alone, and Haitani doesn't even think of rebuking them.

He, too, knows that resistance is futile.

"...Open the gate," he says.

"A-are you mad, Commander?! Wh-who knows what'll happen if we let that thing inside?!"

"So? It's not like we have any other options."

"But, Commander…"

"None of us are powerful enough to so much as break his stride, so we have to gamble on whatever tiny chance we have. He did stop the stampede, if nothing else."

As Haitani speaks, he descends the wall and opens the gate himself.

The Black Knight walks into the base without even hesitating.

The knights scramble over one another to get out of his way.

Not a single one of them tries to stop him.

The Black Knight keeps going like it's the most natural thing imaginable.

Everyone present understands one thing — if anyone in the world can claim to be strong, it's him.

"Hold..."

Haitani tries to speak to him.

However, his voice fails him.

He realizes, faintly, that it's because he's scared.

Finally, he manages to wring out a hoarse shout.

"H-hold on, please... What do you want? Why are you here at Messiah...?"

He fully expects to be ignored. The Black Knight might not have even heard him.

To his surprise, though, the Black Knight stops and murmurs softly. "The time has come. The door of darkness is cast open, and the world advances to a new field..."

Nobody present understands what he means.

However, his words have a weight to them that they can all comprehend.

The Black Knight knows everything, no doubt.

He knows why Japan became the way it did. Where the beasts came from. Everything. He sees the shape the world is yet to take.

Surely that's why they don't understand him.

"Who... Who exactly are you...?" Haitani asks as the Black Knight goes farther away.

"My name is Shadow. I lurk in the darkness and hunt down shadows."

"You lurk in the darkness...and hunt down shadows..."

Haitani watches him go.

He wonders if the day will ever come when he understands what Shadow means by that.

<<•>>

My black longcoat flutters as I vanish into the darkness.

It's the perfect exit — it's slow, it's unhurried, and it leaves behind the impression of absolute power.

"Heh-heh-heh... I nailed that!"

They're probably still trembling in awe at the eminence in shadow who appeared out of nowhere and obliterated the beasts with overwhelming force.

Plus, they'll spend ages pondering the mysterious words I left them with.

"Shadowbrokers never die. They live on forever in the hearts of those who witness their deeds."

As I stealthily watch my audience from a rooftop, I sense a familiar presence behind me.

"Beta... You've come," I say, switching back into my Shadow act.

She does her own Shadow Garden act and kneels before me.

"Did come yes. Was am late."

For some reason, she's talking in Japanese.

But why?

"I-I see you've learned Japanese..."

"Yes. Thanks to Lord Shah-dou am many fluent."

That's not exactly what l'd call fluent, but she's clearly competent enough to make herself understood.

That weird, choppy grammar of hers sort of reminds me of someone, but I can't put my finger on who.

None of my acquaintances immediately come to mind, though, so it's probably not that important.

But I gotta say, I wasn't expecting Beta to learn Japanese nearly this fast.

"Anyway…..what's in the bag?"

She's carrying a huge bag made of slime on her back.

It looks sort of like Santa Claus lugging around his big sack of presents.

"I gathered the you-know-whats. Now we am be stronger."

"The you-know-whats..?"

Pretty sure I don't know any whats, but I guess she's just doing our standard routine.

"Many knowledge. Like you am said long ago, Lord Shah-dou. All knowledge am have common links. You was right! Sai-fur pattern am linked! Learned Japanese! Lots of many other links! Knowledge all connected! It are amazing!"

"Ah, yes. It all makes sense."

That didn't make any sense. All I got from that was that Beta's Japanese blows.

"And how is the plan proceeding?"

There wasn't actually a plan, but I feel like changing the subject.

We're pretty far off-script at this point, yet Beta does a perfect job keeping up with my ad-libbing.

"Everything am in place. Did found what we looking for."

"I see... So, everything is in place."

"Door am open. Leader that way."

"I see... So, the enemy leader is that way..."

When I turn my attention in the direction Beta's pointing, I sense a pair of unusual magical signatures.

She must've gone and found the next big event for me.

You did good, Beta.

<<•>>

A shadowy figure runs down a dark underground tunnel.

They're carrying a severed head, and every so often, they shoot a worried glance back over their shoulder.

Eventually, they come to a stop in front of a large wheeled suitcase at the end of the tunnel.

"It's over... It's finally over."

The figure's voice is female.

She retrieves a flashlight and uses its light to open the suitcase.

Inside, there's a sleeping young woman hugging her knees.

The young woman has long black hair and is dressed in a knight order uniform. It's Akane Nishino.

"This is all your fault. Everything that happened, everything that's about to happen…it's all because of you," the shadowy woman says to her.

She sets down the head and pulls something shaped like a syringe from her pocket.

That's when a new voice echoes through the tunnel.

"Looks like I was right. You were the culprit."

It belongs to a boy.

"Who's there?!"

The shadowed woman whirls back and shines her flashlight toward where the voice came from.

Its light reveals the boy standing in the darkness. He has black hair and eyes, and looks utterly unassuming. He's the kind of average young man you could find just about anywhere.

"Minoru...? How are you here?"

"You probably thought I was dead, didn't you...Dr. Yuuka?"

"..…."

The woman's expression freezes.

Sure enough, she's the base's lab coat-clad physician, Dr. Yuuka.

"I mean, you are the one who gave the order to have me killed."

"…That's right, I am. Clever work, figuring that out."

"I take it you killed the gor...Saejima, too?"

She admits it matter-of-factly. "That's right."

"It was weird, you know. I hadn't done anything to make people want to attack me. The only explanation that made sense was if you were the killer."

"I see they didn't finish the job."

"Nope. I'm still alive and kicking. Why'd you do it, Doc?"

Dr. Yuuka smiles coldly. "You want an explanation?"

She pulls a pistol from her lab coat's pocket and points it at Minoru.

"...That the gun you used to kill Saejima?"

"The very same. Killing him was like taking candy from a baby. When their guards are down, knights are just ordinary people. You can kill with nothing more than a little...bang."

She pulls the trigger.

A bullet bounces off the ground by Minoru's feet, sending up a little shower of sparks.

Minoru doesn't so much as twitch, a fact that she regards with some surprise. "You don't scare easy, do you? Or are you just so scared you can't even move?"

"Why'd you kill him?"

"He was our inside man. Once we had what we needed, we got rid of him," she answers with a bewitching smile.

"We?"

"I'm a spy for the Alliance."

"Oh, I see. So, what, you're after the base?"

"That's what the Alliance is after, certainly. But not me." She clenches her fists. "My goal is revenge."

"What do you mean?"

"Where to start... Do you know who she really is, deep down inside?"

Dr. Yuuka looks down at Akane's sleeping body.

"She's a very bad girl who killed loads and loads of people."

"Huh."

The boy sounds almost nonchalant. Dr. Yuuka's expression harshens. "You don't believe me. You think I'm lying, don't you?"

"What? No. I'm sure you're—"

"Fine. I'll tell you everything. Let's see how you feel once you know about the way she slaughtered them."

"I mean, hey, if you want to."

Dr. Yuuka's lips contort as she begins telling her story. Her expression hasn't softened one bit. "I used to live in Arcadia with my husband. Things weren't easy, but we were happy. Now, my husband was a researcher. He studied the Awakened alongside Akira Nishino."

"Okay..."

"One day, their research bore fruit, and they created the first knight in all of Japan — a girl with black hair and red eyes who they called the Original Knight."

She stares down at Akane Nishino as she speaks.

That strikes me as odd. "If I remember correctly, I thought I heard that the Original Knight had golden hair."

"In the beginning, her hair was dark. But Akira Nishino wasn't satisfied with her power. He began dabbling in forbidden research in an attempt to make her even stronger. That was what turned her hair golden."

"Oh, huh..."

"And she became powerful, all right. Eventually, though, that power grew out of her control. My husband tried over and over to stop Akira Nishino, but he never could. And that's when it happened."

She hangs her head. Her lips are quivering.

"One day, the Original Knight went on a rampage and massacred the people of Arcadia. My husband was one of the victims; I held him in my arms as he died. I followed Akira Nishino and the Original Knight after that, and when I found them a few years later, do you know what they were doing? Continuing their research like nothing had changed. They destroyed Arcadia and killed my husband, and I intend to make them pay."

She grinds her teeth as she goes on.

"I already put down Akira Nishino. Once I'm through with the Original Knight, it'll all be over. And in case it wasn't clear enough by now, she's the Original Knight."

She looks down at the girl cradling her knees in her sleep.

"...Are you going to kill her?"

"Death would be too good for her. After all the horrors she wrought, now she's trying to forget about what she did. Well, I'm not going to let her. I'm going to force her to remember everything..."

Dr. Yuuka presses the tip of the syringe against Akane's neck and glares at Minoru.

"You stay right where you are. Do you know what kinds of experiments Akira Nishino was performing on this girl? He made the Original Knight by injecting her with purified beast bodily fluids a tiny bit at a time. She's a monster with human and beast bits all mixed up inside her. Now, what do you think will happen...if I inject her with fluids from the Brute?"

She sticks the syringe in and deposits its payload.

Akane's eyes snap open.

Her slender body convulses, and golden magic begins pouring out of her.

By the time she's risen to her feet, her hair gleams gold.

"Now this...this is who you really are."

Dr. Yuuka's mouth curls into a cruel smile. Akane turns her glassy eyes on her.

Akane's face is expressionless, and her eyes are cold and blank.

She casually thrusts her right arm forward.

Her arm moves like it's being drawn to something, then pierces Dr. Yuuka's heart.

Dr. Yuuka doesn't resist.

[+]

Instead, she just slumps forward onto Akane and whispers in her ear.

"...This is my revenge."

She laughs. Her lips are wet with blood.

Then, she crumples at the knees and laughs until the last life fades from her.

"Ah... Ahh... Ah..."

Akane's eyes swim.

Trembling, she looks down at her arm soaked in red.

"Ahhhh... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

She tears at her hair with her bloody hand.

Her screams are tinged with sorrow.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Golden particles scatter from her body. They envelop her surroundings, then explode.

<<•>>

Akane Nishino feels like she's gazing at some sort of distant, far-off world.

In her heart, however, she knows that it's all happening right in front of her.

She knows all too well that the sensation of her arm rending flesh and the sight of Dr. Yuuka collapsing are both terribly real.

She knows, because she remembers having the same thing happen long ago.

She wonders what, exactly, happened back then.

She wonders how many people she killed.

Recollections flood back right as the feeling in her arm does.

"Ahhhh…. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The memories are etched deep in her heart. They'll never go away.

She crushed towns, slaughtered people, and destroyed Arcadia, all because she couldn't control her magic and her urges.

It felt like she was gazing at a distant, far-off world back then, too.

Because of that, she knows what's about to happen.

She can feel her magic starting to run wild.

It hurts.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Golden particles swallow her surroundings, then explode.

The black-haired boy gets caught in the blast and goes flying.

"Ah... Ahhh..."

By the time her magic finally settles down, everything in a dome around her is destroyed.

Rubble lies piled high around her, and she can see the stars through the newly formed hole above.

The black-haired boy is nowhere to be seen.

Akane stands there petrified.

Yet despite the profound sorrow in her heart, she can't get her expression to change. That fact hurts, too.

Then, she hears something behind her.

She turns and sees a man in a black longcoat standing atop the towering debris.

It's the Black Knight.

The moon hangs high at his back as he draws his obsidian blade.

"It's a fine night for severing one's past..."

He raises his sword toward the sky.

A gust of wind blows between the two of them.

"Here I come."

With that, he swoops through the sky.

No... stay back!

Akane's body moves on its own, heedless of her internal screams.

Golden magic wells forth from her entire body. She soars into the air.

The swooping black and soaring gold collide.

And when they do... the gold smashes through the black.

Another person dead by her hands.

Akane looks down at the arm she used to pierce the Black Knight and feels a wave of something almost like resignation wash over her.

Her arm is covered in a black, sticky liquid.

It's the Black Knight's blood. No, wait... that isn't right.

A voice comes from behind her. "That was my afterimage."

She whirls around and finds the Black Knight standing there as calm as can be.

She's positive she felt her arm stab the Black Knight through, yet he doesn't have so much as a scratch on him.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Her body rushes forward, determined to hunt the Black Knight.

Midway through her charge, however, she comes to a sudden stop.

She doesn't know when they got there, but there are chains winding around her arms and legs and restricting her movement.

She thinks back to the black liquid she found on her arm. Did he do that to set this up?

"Agahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

Her magic struggles and tries to lash out, and he chides her in a tranquil tone. "It's no use. None can escape the prison of black chains."

His boots clop against the ground as he slowly approaches her.

Bluish-purple magic gathers at his black blade.

It's terrible and beautiful to behold.

Akane is stunned speechless.

She realizes then that she's going to die there.

It's all finally going to be over.

Her body rages, but her heart is calm.

He brings his blade down, and Akane's vision floods with bluish-purple light.

As her consciousness starts fading, she hears a familiar voice.

"...From now on, try to stop getting kidnapped so much."

<<•>>

Beta watches through a gap in the rubble as the bluish-purple magic heals Akane.

"Tee-hee-hee... This am magnificent."

She uses the digital camera in her right hand to capture an image of her esteemed master, and at the same time, uses her left hand to write out passages of The Chronicles of Master Shadow. It's quite the party trick.

"This camera can preserve Lord Shadow's image in all its majestic glory. Is am like this device were invented just for me."

She wipes away the drool running down her chin before packing up the camera and her manuscript.

Seeing that her master has reached a good stopping point, she calls over to him.

"We're all ready to going, my lord."

He calmly turns toward her. "Ah, Beta."

"Are the plan complete?" she asks.

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Sure."

"Very well. Then I starting."

With that, Beta fishes the severed head out of the rubble.

She's already finished analyzing the Black Rose.

"Oh...?"

"I going like this... And like this, probably... All done!"

She tosses the head into the air, imbues her sword with magic, and uses it to impale the head.

Darkness begins spilling out, forming a growing black hole.

"Ooh... I didn't really follow that, but good work, Beta."

"Y-you're too kind, my lord! It were nothing!"

Beta is so moved by the unexpected compliment, her whole body trembles before she can stop herself.

"All right, let's get out of here. Like, right now. Chop chop, no time to waste."

"Yes, sir."

"Here we go, Beta! Geronimo!"

Without hesitating for a moment, her lord leaps directly into the black hole.

Beta watches him go, but right as she's about to follow his lead, she realizes something.

"This...willn't fit."

The black sack she's lugging around is packed so tight and full it looks like a small mountain.

Inside are all the tools and documents she's collected during her time in Japan.

The plan was to take them all back with her so she could study them, but there's one problem -the black hole is too small.

It's barely large enough for her to fit through, let alone all her loot.

And to make matters worse, it's slowly but surely starting to shrink. In a couple minutes, it'll be completely closed.

"Sniff... But I collecteding so much..."

Tears well up in her eyes as she opens her sack and dumps out its contents.

She begins scouring the pile for anything small enough she can carry with her by hand.

"This one... Not this one... Definitely not this one... This one maybe fitting...Hmm?"

Then, all of a sudden, she registers the presence of the young woman on the ground.

Thanks to the way Beta's master healed her, the young woman's hair has returned from its previous golden hue back to its original beautiful shade of black. She's sleeping peacefully on the ground.

"I just getting a good idea."

A wicked smile spreads across Beta's face as she looks down at the resting woman.

There's only so much she can take with her.

That means she needs to prioritize the most valuable resources and sources of knowledge she can find.

"The best thing to bringing is a local specimen!"

Beta swaddles the raven-haired woman in slime and packs her in with a few smaller devices, as well as the digital camera.

"In we going, now."

She stuffs the black bag into the hole, then jumps in after it.

<<•>>

"Shadow is back?"

At the moment, Alpha is listening to a report while in the director's office of the Mitsugoshi Deluxe Hotel.

The moment she heard about Shadow getting sucked into the Black Rose, she immediately rushed over to the Oriana Kingdom to take charge of the damage control operation.

"M-M-M-M-M-Master Shadow is back?!"

Epsilon, who's working beside her, stands up so fast she knocks her chair over.

"Calm yourself, Epsilon."

"B-but, Alpha..."

"He had some sort of important objective he was carrying out, and we knew he had the resources for his return close at hand. There was never any doubt about whether or not he would be back."

"I—I guess you're right. I'm so glad he's safe, though."

"Where is he now?" Alpha asks Victoria, who's standing in front of the door.

"He's heading for the Midgar Kingdom in quite a hurry."

"Why the rush?"

"He seemed to be concerned about how soon the academy's winter vacation was ending."

"I see. There might be something important happening there, then. Something related to the Cult, or perhaps even Diablos..."

"Understood, ma'am. I should note that Zeta is with him."

"Zeta? When did she get back?"

"Unclear, ma'am."

Alpha lets out a small sigh. "That girl has skills, I'll give her that, but she really does need to report in more often."

"Also, Beta returned as well. She says she brought a number of interesting things back with her."

"Ah, so they did go in with an objective. Where is she?"

"She's—"

Before Victoria can finish her sentence, the door swings open and a silver-haired girl comes in.

"I'm back, everyone!"

"Good work out there," Alpha says. "Actually, before I compliment you, I have to ask-what's that?"

Beta is dragging a large black bag along behind her.

"Let's see," she says and starts proudly pulling out various electronics. "I have a digital camera, a laptop, a tablet... And they're all amazing! I mean, we're talking about some revolutionary gadgets here! All they need is electricity, and they can do all sorts of things!"

Alpha points at the conspicuously human-shaped blob. "That's all fascinating, but I was actually asking about the one that looks like a person."

Epsilon nods in agreement.

"This is, um..." Beta pauses and tilts her head in thought. "A...knowledge... sample? Or rather, a manual, maybe? Something along those lines."

"I have to say, it looks a lot like a human being."

"Well, I haven't looked into it with any proper rigor, but to be precise, she's a specimen from the other world-one that I suspect is nigh indistinguishable from a human."

Beta's pedantic reply earns her a furrowed brow from Alpha. "Well, make sure you take proper care of her."

"Who, me? I was just going to hand her over to Eta..."

"You found her, so she's your responsibility. Once you start something, it's important to see it through. And besides, who knows what Eta would do to her if given free rein?"

Beta hangs her head despondently. "Th-that's a fair point..."

[+]

"You can fill me in on all the details later. Write up a report about everything that happened over there and all the things you brought back."

"O-of course. I'll get started at once."

"Also, there's something you should know. As far as the situation with Number 666 goes..."

The Shadow Garden's board of directors meeting continues until late in the night.

<<•>>

Akane wakes up in a white room.

She feels good. Really good. Her heart is calm, and she can't remember the last time she woke up feeling so refreshed.

"Where am I...?"

She looks around the room.

At first, she thinks she's in one of the university's labs, but the equipment here is too primitive for that.

"I can't...I can't read anything."

There's something written on the wall, but she doesn't even recognize what language it's in.

"What happened to me back there...?"

Akane remembers everything.

She remembers her sins, she remembers accepting death, she remembers the gentle light and his voice enveloping her at the end — everything.

Her heart is calm enough now to accept things as they are.

"...l'm so sorry."

The apology is directed at those she wronged.

Dr. Yuuka, the people of Arcadia... All of them died by her hands.

Her brother might have been the one who started it all, but the way she sees it, it was her own weakness that exacerbated the damage.

She's wanted to come to terms with the past for so long, but she's never had the strength to do so.

Now, however, she does.

"That was you, Minoru… wasn't it?"

His was the voice she heard. She's sure of it.

"I know you survived. You never change, do you…?"

A single tear trickles down from the corner of her eye.

If he's still alive, then she can be strong.

"Wait for me, Minoru. I...l killed a lot of people, but l'm going to save so many more. So please, just wait for me to finish atoning..."

And with that, golden particles begin drifting around her.