Subtracting One's Values
Return_To_Origin

But his appearance wasn't as such that it'd make his enemies pause overly long. On the contrary, it just made them jump at the chance to slay the demon before them before it did the same to them.

"Quick, before he can summon his steamrollers!", Saflee screams to the other two.

Neither of them saw Kumogawa's fight but they understood the urgency in beating him and sprinted to take him out.

[It sucks a bit that I won't be able to live up to your expectations but can't really say I'm too sorry about it when I'll be showing you something a bit better! A good magician doesn't use the same tricks twice after all!]

A sword with a gold, glowing blade appears in his right hand as he raises it in the air above him and slams it into the ground with all his might, shattering the earth around them. Chunks of concrete and metal go flying around midst the dust that billows from where the sword struck.

Maria and Oumi dodge the shrapnel and dive further into the fray while Saflee once more stays back.

"Yeah, I'm not so good with this kind of ranged area attacks. They'll probably be able to just chase him over to me and I'll smash his face in again. But what am I going to do if he tries that trick again? Maybe I should go in there?"

[Oh, I wouldn't worry about that!]

Her instincts go into overdrive as she whips a leg out behind her but finds nothing but air.

[Geeeeze. It's like you weren't listening at all!]

In the time that she had kicked, Kumagawa had appeared right in front of her face.

[A good magician never drags out the same old tired trick he just used in the previous act. Instead, he denies everyone's expectations with something never seen before!]

He lashes out at Saflee with a savage, though unskilled, punch to her face. She spins and tumbles over onto the ground but makes a quick recovery as she leaps back up and dashes toward him. She attempts a backhanded punch at him though he just ducks underneath her arm. A feint. Her powerful kick sends him flying back into the settling cloud of smoke.

His body is flung right back out with a spidery Maria and an airborne Oumi chasing after him. But before they can get close, blades of various make and design spring from the ground between them like trees. Maria manages to change her direction and while Oumi is no esper, her agility allows her to bounce through the bloom of swords to reach her now standing target.

Oumi swings her gardening trowel for his throat and, to her surprise, he makes no effort to avoid it. Blood sprays from the wound all over her and the pristine snow. As his body hits the ground, the blades disappear and her partners come running up.

"Hey! What have you done?! I know you're a ninja but even this-"

Oumi turns to Maria's shouts, "No, I was honestly under the assumption that he was going to dodge that one. But, it doesn't really matter when he's clearly with that Kihara girl, does it?"

Maria's face scrunches up in frustration, "Yeah, he was bad but even so we should have just knocked him out and-"

Their ethical debate is interrupted by Saflee brushing past the two of them. She stands over the corpse for a moment before rapidly and heavily curb-stomping his head.

"Hey!"

By the time they were able to pull her away, his head had been turned to an unrecognizable paste.

"Why?!"

"Neither of you understand! He's not the sort that dies when he's killed," she says shivering.

"What the hell kind of sense does that make?!"

[Yeah, are you feeling alright?]

All three of them freeze right on the spot as they hear the shuffling of clothes out of their sight.

[Not dying when you're killed? That's just silly! Everybody dies. May not be today or tomorrow or even for several decades but eventually everyone dies. I just happen to do it more than the average bear!]

They finally turn toward their enemy, completely unscathed and unaffected by their previous assault, as he smiles at them.

"What...the hell?"

"We have to bury him! Or throw him in a vat of concrete! Something that he can't just simply revive from!", shouts Saflee as she discards her fear and rushes at him.

[Hmm. Yeah. That might be a good method but I'll only be able to give that a C+. After all,]

In the blink of an eye he had managed to travel to the other side of his opponents, now all simultaneously pinned to the floor by his screws to their clothes.

[I'm just a some loser mortal. Man, I really couldn't win with any of my new tricks against you lot!]

He moves past the squirming women as he reunites with his new friend.

[Are you alright, Enshuu-chan?]

He offers his hand to her. She stares at it as though it were some alien appendage.

"Why? I had...tried to kill you after I had thought you betrayed me so why do you keep being so nice to me?"

[Hmm? Haven't I been helping you out since the start?]

"I never realized that it was you. I just thought it was your thought patterns telling me how it is that you would respond to me and my situation. I thought by pretending like I was one of your kind, it might give me some sort of edge over everyone. In the end, I was only clinging to my old ways to use how it is you did things as a crutch."

[Oh. Well that's perfectly fine for friends to do!]

She looks at him with confusion, irritation, doubt, and a mixture of various other feelings in her heart. To be 'friends' or to have them was a concept that as a Kihara, she rejected on an instinctual level. She just can't accept that anyone would ever be kind to her for such vague reasons.

"Again, why?! I haven't once thought of you like that!"

[Really? You were smiling an awful lot earlier when we were wandering this place.]

"That's...that doesn't count."

[Oho, why is that? Just because you were only considering me as some imaginary friend? That still has the word, friend, in that you know. But that's fine! Even that tsunyan side of you is cute! Also, you have yet to slap my hand away so no matter what you say, I can still see that the chance is there!]

His offered hand hadn't moved from the start. Until this moment, she had lived her life without caring for anyone else outside her family. It's funny when you think about it. So eager to try out the sort of things that would make the average mad scientist piss themselves and yet that same person is shaking in fear of a helping hand. The sort capable of exploring the unknown and yet also afraid it.

She reaches out, stops, and continues to gingerly take his hand in hers.

But that's exactly how Kumagawa described the character of a Minus. Infinitely contradictive.

All at once, far too quick for anyone to react to, Kumagawa flings Enshuu violently away from him, sending her crashing into a wall some distance away. She lays there crumpled up as she looks over at him in dazed confusion.

Well. It has been mention what kind of guy Kumagawa is. Who could expect any different given the situation?

Not a moment sooner from when she was thrown, a bulky mass crashed down on the spot they were just having their conversation. Once the dust cloud had settled, Kumagawa found himself face to face with a dinosaur.

[WAWAWAWAWAWA! HEY! HANG ON! I'M NOT ALAN GRANT! WHAT'S WITH THIS PLACE?! I THOUGHT VAMPIRES WERE CRAZY BUT THIS WORLD JUST KEEPS ON ONE-UPPING ITSELF! I-]

Kumagawa's rant stops short as the dinosaur rushes it's long neck past him for it's preferred target, Kumokawa Maria. He turns his head to what anyone could be sure was to be carnage with puffed cheeks. The sight of it took his breath away. A man, torn and bloodied, had jammed his left arm into it's head just before it could tear the girl apart.

Despite just how much energy and life would be required for such an attack, it was easy to tell that the man was already being ushered away by the reaper. A left arm, his upper body, and flayed skin the price for the battle. But even at such a point, he had expended strength he didn't have to kill the monster. Whether it was out of hate for the thing or to save the girl or both, it was unclear.

Even as the beast began to dissolve like a crumbling sandcastle, the man shook the head around, as though disgusted by it's contact with him, until it flew and tumbled across the snow. It's slam against a ruined building sounded for his fight to be done and with that he collapses, his blood pooling all about him. With that kind of skill and power, he might have survived if he had gone about things another way but that simply wasn't what he wanted.

A tearing sound comes from behind him but Kumagawa does nothing to stop it's source. He hadn't the right to. Maria comes running to his side, tears flying off her face.

"SENSEI!"

Kumagawa watched on as the man uttered his last words, it's meaning lost to him in the chilling breeze. The two remain in their respective spots as they watch the beast slayer's body getting slowly buried by the snow. Their somber moment of silence was just a mere moment in time, frozen in place only by those that held it.

Time can be such an uncomfortable thing. It shapeshifts on you if aren't careful. It'll elongate itself to choke you in a moment, become razor sharp to bleed you the next, and transition to be infinitely heavy so it can crush you in yet another instant. But even so, time moves cruelly on without regard to life.

"I knew."

Kumagawa blinks in surprise as the portrait before him regains it's composure. She shakes and shivers more from the indignation at the man's fate than the cold.

"I KNEW BECAUSE I KEPT LOOKING INTO IT! YOU DID LOTS OF THINGS TO HELP US, AND EVEN LEFT SECRETLY TO PREVENT US FROM BECOMING MURDERERS, SENSEI! YOU'VE BEEN BOTHERED BY THIS ALL THE TIME, ABOUT WHO HAD SET UP THAT MURDERER! SENSEI, ARE, ARE YOU GOING TO APOLOGIZE TO US NOW!?"

Her voice cracks as she scrapes her lungs and vocal cords just to release this pain.

"BUT I KNOW THINGS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW EITHER, SENSEI! THOSE LIVES YOU SAVED ARE WALKING DOWN DIFFERENT PATHS! EVERYONE IS GRATEFUL TO YOU! EVERYONE IS WORRIED ABOUT YOU! IT WASN'T FUTILE! WE DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HATE YOURSELF, SENSEI, BUT THIS ISN'T FUTILE AT ALL!"

She screams and screams at his peaceful expression. Of course, there was no answer.

"DAMN IT, DON'T DIE WITH A SATISFIED LOOK! I'LL BEAT YOU UP! I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH IF IT WILL WAKE YOU UP! BESIDES, I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU THE MOST! THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT YOUR ALL! BUT, WHY…WHY MUST YOU JUST SIMPLY DIE LIKE THAT!"

There was nothing more to be said. For none of the present company. All this was, was one girl's deafening lamentation at the loss of someone dear to her. It was ugly. Such raw emotion tends to be nothing but. It's not something to be admired or sought after. But regardless of how it may be, it's still a precious moment that not even a wild card like Kumagawa can laugh at. He turns away from it and walks in the now unconscious Enshuu's direction.

"...Wait."

And so he does.

[Yeah?]

"That thing you did after Oumi and Saflee killed you," she whispers with all the desperate hope her despair could bring her, "Can you use it on other people?"

[...Yeah.]

The furious sounds of Maria leaping from the ground and racing for Kumagawa's still form stave off the silence.

"Then, then please! You have to help him!"

Kumagawa says nothing.

"I'll do anything! I don't care if it means my body or my life but you have to bring him back!"

She couldn't see his face but the sudden shiver down her spine wasn't from the climate.

[Ohoooooooo? Anythiiiiiing huh? That's quite a dangerous thing you just said you know? You may not be able to marry that sensei of yours, or anyone else for that matter, after I'm through. You really want that, you stripper pole lover?]

Her jaw clinches so hard, several cracks and pops could be heard. Her nails digging into her palms let her blood flow freely.

"As...as I said, whatever it takes to bring him back-"

He rounds on her with a look of disdain.

"Are you really that retarded?"

"Wha-"

"Do really believe that sensei of yours died just so you could spit on his determination by surrendering yourself to a guy like me? I may not know the circumstances between you two and whatever the hell that thing was but I do know that he chose to die this way. This is what that kind of conviction brings when it comes to revenge."

Maria was shocked at his sudden change in character but now she was just pissed.

"So what?! I don't care about something like that! Yeah, I'm just some selfish idiot that wants to bring him back no matter what happens! But I still don't care even knowing that-"

"Does that make you feel better about the whole situation? Putting on the airs of someone with a moral high ground by degrading yourself for sympathy votes? It doesn't change the facts. He didn't just give his life to take that thing, he gave it to save you too. Granted it was just a matter of convenience that he was able to save you as well then but even before now when Enshuu-chan knocked you out and was going to do worse to the ninja girl, he put his revenge aside for just long enough to save the two of you."

"That-"

"Doesn't matter? His wish to see you alive and well being put ahead of what was his literal life's work matters so little to you? Man you really are worthless. My power doesn't bring the dead back to life, it just simply makes it so the event that I, or someone else, had died didn't happen. I make his death nonexistent then I would also be making all that work and determination go with it. He chose his death. It's not up to me to deny him that."

"You're really telling me that you've never done something like that for someone you care for?"

"Hmm. Yeah I guess I have quite a few times. Though I wouldn't go as far as-"

"Then what gives you the right to tell me that bringing him back is selfish then?!"

"Because I was the one that died in those circumstances."

Maria is taken aback for barely half a second before she goes back to being angry.

"So what."

"So nothing. It doesn't matter. None of this matters. You don't care about my reasons. I don't care about yours. I refuse to make his death nonexistent because I'm an asshole and I don't like you and I just plain don't wanna do it. Let's just leave it at that."

"Because you don't like me? You're really going to just let him die for that!"

"Let him die? You still don't get it? He's already dead. Even if I wasn't here, I'm sure this is exactly where events would have led to. My power shits on the natural order of things and you really want me to involve him in that?"

She slumps to her knees now. Tears have long since stopped flowing.

"I just...I just wanted to see him again. I knew somewhat that this is what he was likely going to do but even so I thought that I might be able to stop him if I could just talk to him. I didn't want this."

Kumagawa looks past her at the man's snow buried outline.

"Doubt he really wanted this situation either. It's what he chose despite his feelings. I believe the saying is, when seeking revenge, prepare two graves."

"That would be like him. He left my school after he killed someone that attacked him. It wasn't as if anyone blamed him for it. It was self defense. He was still allowed to have his teaching license. But even so, he quit so other students wouldn't take that example as being a valid reason for taking a life. Heh. Even in this case, he likely died so no one like me would think that killing for revenge should be an option."

"Doubt he went that far into it. Though maybe he did die for that reason. Maybe it was so those other guys wouldn't go after you and those other students of his if he lived through it. Maybe the fight was so tough that he hadn't an option in surviving it. Regardless of the reasons, he died for his revenge all the same. And that's that. Like I've mentioned before, I hardly knew the guy but I doubt he'd want you to go so far for his sake. Even in the case that I did it as a freebie, I don't think he'd be happy with it. It'd be like if you had some test that you studied your ass for, one with your future on the line, and it turned out after the fact it was just some practice test that didn't count for shit."

Her hands ball back into clenched fists.

"I get it. You don't have to keep beating a dead horse. My problems and wishes matter to you as much as yours does to me right now. I...shouldn't be trying to make someone else shoulder that burden."

Kumagawa's face relaxes for the first time since their argument began.

[Well, hey, as long as you understand that much! It's been fun and all but I think I'll just take my loli from over there and go if you don't mind.]

Maria laughs sardonically, "Is that why you won't grant my wish then? Because you're a lolicon?"

[Hey! That's just plain slander! I'm not that small a man. My heart is big enough to welcome all women of any shape, size, or age. Hell, I might even disregard gender if they're cute enough.]

Her laugh now, while not quite there yet, was nearly entirely genuine.

"You really are a strange guy."

[So I've been told,] he replies as he turns to go back to Enshuu.

But he stops dead in his tracks. Maria, confused, tilts her head so as to see beyond his frame and sees a familiar face. Marian Slingeneyer's face to be exact.

The other two girls had already gotten free from Kumagawa's restraints by this point and had run up to Maria's side, staring with fear at Marian.

She had been heavily injured prior to this. Gauze loosely covers an eye and one of her legs was dragging across the snow. Her condition wasn't necessarily a cause for alarm however it was what she was carrying that caught everyone's eye.

A golden scabbard of Norse design containing a sword within. The pressure it gave made them feel as if it was squeezing onto their hearts. Despite her beaten and torn body just with that sword she carried, she was able to set off the natural alarms in anyone's heads to run as far away as possible.

"...Doesn't look like we can talk peacefully here," Maria uttered around a dry throat.

[I know right? These guys are really pulling out all the stops if they're going as far as to summon Attila the Hun as Saber to kill us. Though, she looks a lot different in person than from how she is in game. Didn't think she'd be so short.]

"Do you ever take anything seriously? How'd I let myself get beat by this guy?", Oumi sighs.

Saflee laughs, "That's probably why he was able to beat us. But still. Can we count on you for this fight, mister screw-wielding pervert?"

[Eh? Me? I dunno. Having me on your side is like having an ever-present omen of defeat hanging over your heads. Do you really want me on your side?]

"Odds don't look good enough to be picky," Oumi counters.

[Alrighty then. Even though it's my general policy not to ally myself with the strong, that's all just a matter of perspective in the end. After all, you guys are actually pretty weak compared to miss Attila over there.]

"Right. So here's how we're going to-"

[Stooooooooop! If you try to explain what we're going to do with our enemy being gracious enough to wait for you to finish, then we're really going to lose! Do you not read manga or any other piece of literature? Or is the stereotype that physical types are dumb true, miss muscle lady?!]

"Muscle lady? Whatever. What do you expect us to do then?"

[What else could we do at a time like this? WE CHARGE RIGHT IN!]

In less than the blink of an eye, Kumagawa makes the distance between himself and Marian zero. She wasn't just standing around patiently however. The arm holding the scabbard was raised in the air as she looked down on her attacker with cold eyes.

"Fill."

The moment she uttered this one word, all hell broke loose. Lightning stuck her sword and an explosion rocked the environment. A blinding flash blasted their eyes as shockwaves burst from every direction. The ground shook and snow flurried off the ground. The flash was just for a moment but it distorted space and made reality skip like a record.

Coincidentally, Kumagawa was not more than two feet from the chaos that Marian brought to her side and as such he was blown clear past Maria and friends, crashing and tumbling all over the place.

"Ah geeze! Whatever that was, I'll have to agree with the pervert's assessment of the situation. WE JUST HAVE TO SMASH HER FACE IN BEFORE SHE CAN DO ANYTHING MORE!"

Saflee's warcry as she began to sprint at Marian full tilt shook the other two from their shock.

"Hey wait a second!"

"We can't afford to be hasty around something-"

The unnervingly calm voice of Marian speaks over their attempts to stop their comrade.

"It really doesn't matter what you try. You're all going to die here anyway."

Marian's thumb flicks the blade at her side from it's sheath by a few negligible millimeters. It wasn't as showy as before. In fact, there was a distinct lack of any sort of visual effect. It was as exciting an action as picking up a pen from a desk.

And yet, that was all it took to stop the hearts of everyone besides Maria and Marian.

The crimson light that beamed from the scant bit that was shown between the scabbard and the hilt blinked out as the sword slid back into it's sheath with a small clink. Silently, Marian points the still sheathed sword down at her enemy. The murder in her stare was enough to nearly bring Maria into despair.

Just how is it that one expects to fight something like that? Never mind surviving that attack of the soul, a normal person simply can't counter something of that level. It's like fighting an earthquake or a tornado. It was impossible.

So, considering the situation, why was it the one guy suited for such a fight was playing possum?

Kumagawa could easily beat her. Whether it's as direct as using his screws or hands to make her submit or as roundabout as letting her kill him as many times as it takes to break her spirit, he could do it without any problems. The main issue lay in his motivation. He felt that it would be a waste of time to try to crush this brown girl. There were prior commitments to consider, after all.

He watches on as they talk to each other. Surely something explaining the phenomena behind the sword. Kumagawa doesn't pay attention to any of it.

But even so, it would be something of a disservice to the man that just gave his life to protect that girl if he were to let her die so easily. Letting her die to something that could put up less of a fight would be better. It's a matter of principle of his to protect the weak but in terms of who is actually labeled as weak in his eyes was just a simple matter of comparison.

Between his apathy and principals, it was all far too much a pain in the ass for him to think about.

After all the traveling he's done and the things he's been through just to find Ajimu, he's incredibly tired. Now, so as to give nobody the wrong idea, Kumagawa would be this lazy in exactly this situation even if he wasn't tired. It's just in his nature to give up.

The blade had slid out far enough to show it's edge, despair and impending death loom over everyone else but Kumagawa as he stifles a yawn.

It may sound odd but he is constantly having to fight the urge to give up any time the feeling strikes him, which is really any time he happens to be conscious. His strong will is only as such because of this. Because he's always at odds with his self-defeatist tendencies.

He manages to gather the will to stand when a sound somewhat akin to a ball ringing off a metal bat resonates in the ears of everyone present. Space had just been cracked open right by Marian as a hand extends itself though and grabs onto Marian's sword hand. She immediately flees from the perversion of reality like a particularly skittish girl from a cockroach.

[Huh?]

Even he felt that the situation was odd but the strangest thing wasn't what just happened but rather the sudden realization that everything until now was what was truly odd.

"… I finally caught up."

From the crack in the sky, came a quiet voice with such an unshakable resolve that it surprised Kumagawa even further.

"It may be too late, and it took me a lot of time to get in here. Even so, I've caught up to you, Gremlin. You told me the coordinates of this distorted space you created. Since I've caught up, I won't let you do as you please. My right hand has the destructive power to destroy what you control."

The cracks spread further and further.

The voice becomes stronger and stronger.

"That's the line. Up 'till now, it's all been a world managed by your rules."

Pieces of reality fall from that space as the hand forcibly expands the opening.

"So now."

The newcomer steps through the space like a knight striding in to slay a demon.

"Now, we're going to finish things by my rules!"

[...Well, that's a main character if I've ever seen one. What kind of asswipe thinks making that kind of a scene is cool to pull at the last second like this? What a narcissistic idiot,] he mutters to himself as he watches on from the ground.

The world had changed with the boy's appearance. They were no longer in that freezing storage yard. All around them was concrete walls and chain link fences.

[So, we're in one of the arenas huh. Haven't fought in this one so I don't really have that much familiarization with the place. Well. At least I don't have to worry about Enshuu-chan's body freezing over. It wouldn't really matter when I could just rezz her here and now but I'd rather get her out of harm's way first. But still...having to lug a girl popsicle may be a fantasy that I didn't know I wanted however putting the act of carrying a mass of iced flesh sounds pretty cumbersome. Oh well. Guess I'll just hit up everyone else here while I'm at-]

His eye catches Marian's sword peeking out from it's sheath. He tenses up, ready to fight back, but then he notices it.

He hadn't died. Nor had anyone else for that matter.

"That attack is triggered by the fear of that powerful magic, so it will not work on me. I know that magic is not something that will hit me no matter what. With the power of my right hand…no, as long as I have the will to clench my fist, I can brush aside or negate it."

[What the hell…]

He looks back at the corpses of the two girls he had fought before. But they were no longer corpses. Breath returned to their diaphragms and their eyes opened wide as they came back to life.

[No really. What the hell is this?]

From what the boy said...he had made the magic of the sword nothing. Which in turn brought back the ones slaughtered by it's terrifying presence. That may not exactly be what happened but that's how he saw the situation regardless. Suffice to say, he was thoroughly confused.

This boy was unmistakably a protagonist. One, that to his eyes at least, was just a normal boy and yet was armed with something comparable to his own screwed up Minus in terms of it's function.

Someone that self-righteous shouldn't have that capability to be, no. That's wrong. A Minus is a Minus no matter how they may act. What it was is the fact that Kumagawa was absolutely sure of this guy being a protagonist so there shouldn't be any reason why he could be a Minus. Even if it were possible, the similarity of their powers called too much into question for him to readily accept. So there was only one conclusion that Kumagawa could reach.

His cute vp had given the main character of this world some distorted form of Hundred Gauntlets.

[...That's just cruel. How could you give me such a loving present as though I held a special place in your heart and yet just give the same one away to some shitty MC of an urban fantasy series? That just hurts me deeply, Anshin'in-san! Well. We can talk about your punishment for cheating on me later. For now though, I'll just have to nab my loliscicle and-]

He looks over in the direction where she had lay in, finding nothing.

Could she have been just another part of this massive illusion? No. He felt that Kagun's knowledge of her made it so that she should in fact exist and with the addition of Byouri being there, it made it that much more plausible that she should've been in the city to begin with.

Ignoring the battle in front of him, he walks up to Maria's dazed side.

[Hey, hey! Stripper girl! I'll throw you some singles if you answer a quick question for me!]

"Whoa! You're, you're still here? Thought you would have run off," she said, apparently too emotionally tossed about by what's been happening to get angry at his continued slander of her character.

[Enshuu-chan, do you know where she went?]

"Hm? That little Kihara? She ran off."

[Cool. Cool. See ya then!]

"You're going to leave now! You don't think that he'll need help?!"

He had begun to walk off but he stops and tilts his head back at her.

[Not really? I mean, I could help but he seems to have a handle on things. Wouldn't want to step on any toes here you know? Have a fun life!]

She tries to stop him but before she could get a word out, he had disappeared from sight.

Enshuu rests her battered body in a building she chose at random. She couldn't hang around that insanity. Plus...she wasn't really sure of how she ought to treat Kumagawa at this point.

They were friends. He betrayed her. They were enemies. He saved her.

It was obvious to her that he wasn't an enemy anymore though. But considering how fast this relationship of theirs, as well as her personality, was changing, it's something that'd trouble anyone. That and should she still be calling his name with the oniichan added to it?

It wasn't so much a matter of whether it was embarrassing for her, she could have done it for Kamijou Touma had they talked back there, but rather it was an issue of how he would react to it.

Frozen air floats from her lips as she sighs.

It doesn't really matter. She won't be seeing him again anyway. While he's occupied by that sword woman, she'll be picked up in a bleeding-edge type of helicopter that flies as fast as most modern jets to be sent back to her private little corner of Academy City. Now that she's a little bit more self-aware, however, she sees that it was just barely being shy of a prison.

They had kept her there to make sure she wouldn't go off doing dangerous things. May sound a little off for a Kihara to be kept out of danger but she had no awareness of the things she does. She might have gone out and slaughtered a kindergarten school for a small experiment or for fresh bodies.

What she felt at this new-found realization was not anger or sadness. Just disappointment. She was disappointed that her family had been so cold as to restrict her research in such a manner. They all loved science so why would they try to keep her from it? Why would they keep her from being closer to them?

She thought about it.

She thought about it some more.

An answer comes to her.

She had been kept from science before. It was the main reason she had been able to learn as much as she had on her own. Today, she had been separated from the network that allowed her to become closer to being a Kihara and while it did initially put her at a severe disadvantage, she was able to learn of another path she could take. Something potentially stronger than the systems within Academy City. Maybe even stronger than the ones outside of it as well.

She can't go any further in being a Kihara as she is missing the qualifying parts but she has the possibility to go even further than that in becoming a Minus. Was that it? They weren't trying to stop her from progressing. They were trying to give her another option. Of course, there's no way a Kihara would actually feel anything like familial bonds between each other but her naivete blinds her from that aspect.

She smiles at her delusion and gingerly stands up from her position on the floor.

"Now to go find Kumagawa-oniichan. Hopefully, he didn't lose in the first move and run off."

[...Do you really have so little faith in me, Enshuu-chan?]

She turns around and stares at Kumagawa's pained face for a moment before turning back around.

"Yes. Hopefully, he doesn't meet my expectations for him. Hopefully, he at least got further than just an attempt at an attack before he loses and runs away because he's too lazy to finish what he starts."

[Why were you even trying to make it sound like you didn't know when you've seen that much?! Even without those phones you're still able to cut me so deep! But I guess I should expect as much from Enshuu-sensei-chan!]

"...Again with the additional honorifics? Please stop that Kumagawa-oniichan, people may get the wrong idea and think we're friends."

[We aren't?! Even after we had so much fun together in fighting those guys? Are you still embarrassed over not knowing that I was there?]

She tenses up and scratches her cheek.

"All you did was talk and talk. You didn't help with anything."

[Oho? Avoiding the question? Looks like I hit the nail on the head then huh.]

"Say, can I ask you something?"

[Still avoiding it? Well whatever. For you, I'll ignore that particularly embarrassing moment of yours. At least for now. I'll probably bring it up later when I'm bored. What?]

"Can...I come with you?"

[...Aren't you returning with that family of yours?]

"Well. I've decided that if I'm going to get any closer to being a Kihara, then I should research the systems outside of Academy City's. The one you fall under seems to work somewhat for me so I'd like to explore that a bit."

[Hmm. Yeah, guess I can't just say it's not my fault here huh,] he mutters while he scratches his head and avoids eye contact for a second, [I...can't.]

"Eh? Why not Kumagawa-oniichan?"

[Ah, well. Should be saying that I shouldn't rather than can't but I'm not the type you should be learning from. I mean, I can say without a doubt that I'm the worst guy you'll ever meet. Plus, I have a lot on my plate already without having to worry about teaching someone. Doubt a guy that didn't learn a thing in school can really teach either for that matter.]

"Most of that sounds like excuses since you feel too awkward to tell me no outright."

[Guh. Always telling it like is, huh.]

"Well. Just tell me what it is you're trying to do and if it is honestly out of my league, then I'll go home."

[Really? I have my doubts as a fellow Minus on that one but oh well.]

He jumps up to sit on the table opposite of where Enshuu's chair is.

[I'm trying to stop someone with power enough to take on whole pantheons of gods without breaking a sweat. She's so overpowered that she could probably take on Saitama's serious series.]

"Who's Saitama?"

[From One-punch Man. Do you-never mind, never mind. Anyway, she's far stronger than that sword girl that was here today.]

"Okay. Even if she's that powerful, it's hard for me to put that into perspective. People can hardly feel the enormity of the vastness of space even when they look at pictures of the solar system and have the measurements in front of them."

[Oh. Yeah I guess so. Then, someone mentioned magic gods earlier. Know what that is?]

"No?"

[Doesn't matter. Just know that All Fiction, the Skill I have to turn anything into nothing, is just a distorted version of one of the two Skills she gave me. Of which, there are 12,858,051,967,633,862 by the way.]

"12-what? That's just-"

[Absurd. I know. Trust me I know. Just to give you an even better frame of reference, my Skills the last time she and I fought were All Fiction and my original Minus, Bookmaker. A Skill to make anyone as weak as me on every level imaginable. Both of these skills were only enough to seal her for 3 years. That's how absurd the power difference is here. She was hit by an attack, the last I saw her, that was capable of having damage that couldn't be healed from. I couldn't even use All Fiction to make the wounds nothing. She got cut in half by that. Yet, she's still alive somewhere in this world.]

"What?! I get that you're a Minus so you'll jump into things like that, but just what possesses you to try to stop someone like that? It's like trying to stop the expansion of the universe with a pebble."

He doesn't respond. His head hangs low enough that his long hair obscures his eyes. He stays silent for a long time. Enshuu felt like she might have asked something bad and was about to apologize when he speaks up once more.

"Because I was fool enough to fall in love with her...and fool plenty still to try to stop someone like that from suicide."

None of his usual playful self could be heard in that voice. If she wasn't looking right at him, she could swear she was listening to someone else. Someone far older and worn out than how he usually acts.

"She's been an existence not equal to anyone else for a very, very long time. The years she's lived outstretches those units of distance between celestial bodies that you were talking about a second ago. Her wanting to die is...understandable. Anyone would want to kill themselves out of sheer boredom at that point I think. Which is probably why I fell for her. Our personalities are nearly mirrored, just a few extra or fewer cracks here and there between the two of us. That's exactly why I won't let her die."

His hands clench onto the edges of the table.

"It's her fault for making me fall in love with her when she knew just how easy it is for me to love any girl that smiles my way even if they made the mistake of doing it for someone behind me. Her fault for getting me to actually care even more than what I do superficially for everyone else when she asked me to kill her. Her fault for giving me hope when she bargained for my original Minus with an ability that she said could overwhelm someone as strong as Medaka. Her fault when she gave me hope again when she passed Hundred Gauntlets and Unskilled to me, telling me that I was the only one that kept me from winning. It's all HER goddamn fault. So I won't let her just do as she pleases, as selfishly as she does."

He holds an elongated screw, pointed to the ceiling like a knight pointing his sword at some unseen enemy.

"I'll take those trillions of Skills on and, one way or another, curse her to be a normal girl that'll live a normal life and die a normal death. I'll trample on that wish of hers without a care in the world."

His arm hangs back down at his side. Only now does he look at Enshuu. The edge he had held in his voice grows duller as he speaks to her.

"Which is also why I can't involve anyone else in this. I don't even know if I'll be able to protect this universe from her, let alone herself from her. So go home. Go be the best little mad scientist you can be and forget about me."

"No."

Her unhesitating response shocks him so much that the deja vu gives him whiplash.

"Um-"

"No."

"Yeah I heard you the first time it's just-"

"No."

"Okay, can you please-"

"N. O."

"Look-"

"Niet."

This exchange goes on for quite awhile longer than anyone present could expect so as anyone would expect, Kumagawa gets fed up and screws Enshuu's clothes to the wall.

[COULD YOU PLEASE. PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR, CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, SYRUP, AND A CHERRY ON TOP LET ME TALK FOR A SECOND,] he asks, gasping for breath.

She may be intelligent enough to have several doctorates but she can still be as obstinate as anyone else her age. But his anger has stunned that out of her for just long enough for her to just simply give him a nod.

[Why no? You heard the story. And you said it yourself, it's too large in scale for you get involved in.]

She was still fairly shell-shocked so he released his hold on her so she could be free.

"Um. It's just that, you'll be pretty useless on your own right?"

[That's...neither here nor there.]

"Whatever the case, you still need information on this world if you expect to get by. Let me help."

He thinks on this for a time comparable to his earlier silence.

[Ehhhhh, still no. There really is too much going on for me to try to take on a young padiwan so I'm really sorry, like actually seriously sorry, but-]

"Padiwan?"

He waves his hand dismissively.

[Star Wars.]

"What's that?"

Now his silence is about the length of the last two put together.

"Um, Kuma-"

[Don't. Just don't.]

"But Kumaga-"

[NO. Look, do you even watch movies?! That's an American classic right there!]

"Oh? Sorry, I'm not really into foreign movies."

[Oh really now? Is that a fact? Well how about Akira? Or Jin Roh? Naussica? You've seen those?]

"Well, no but-"

[Oh to hell with all this. You're going to come with me you heathen.]

"What?! Why because of that?!"

[Because right now, your very existence is an affront to all that I hold sacred and until I've corrected this mistake, you'll be traveling with me,] he says as he walks over to the exit.

"Oh. Well, alright then?"

She gets up and begins to follow him when he stops in the doorway.

"Hm? What is it?"

"...It's…hard for me to say but ah thanks. For being so stubborn about helping me. You might regret it before the end, well definitely, but yeah thanks."

It was incredibly awkward sounding. As though he hadn't really thanked someone like this for a long time. She just smiles and pushes him out the frame.

The complete incomplete Minus and the qualified unqualified Kihara. Against someone like Anshin'in, their team-up didn't mean much but to everyone else it may as well be like if the guy with an unbreakable shield and the guy with the spear to pierce through everything joined forces. This was the start to a very ugly and dangerous friendship.

Inside the Windowless Building in Academy City was the city's mastermind. Adult and child. Man and woman. Saint and sinner. Aleister Crowley. He was a man of many contradictive appearances. He floats inside his life support tube and reviews all that happened in Baggage City with a frown on his smooth face. There's an unknown variable making it's way in. He seemed like a particularly high threat but it was the name he had dropped that was deserving of even more attention. Enough so that he couldn't stop himself from saying it despite knowing that she was listening. She always was.

"Ajimu."

"You rang, Edd? Though, I really do wish that you'd call me Anshin'in."

A girl that appeared to be of high school age wearing a typical school uniform came out of thin air right in front of his tube.

"...Did you cut your hair?"

"Ah! Yes I did! How kind of you to notice."

Her voice was sickeningly sweet. It was like an efficient flower's poison in how it could draw one in before it suffocates them. No one else but the one's that knew her would know that the sweetness was just a thinly veiled mask.

"Who is that and why is he here in my world?"

"Oh? You aren't going to ask why I'm here?"

"I made the mistake of saying your name so that would be my fault. Now answer my questions."

Her laugh is reminiscent of a dying bird's last few chirps.

"Oh Edd. You've always been so rude to me. Even though I thought we had already established the hierarchy here."

Her face nor tone changed. But all the same the air grew colder and stuffier as she stared holes in him.

His face nor tone changed. But if you were to peer into the tube, you'd see his fingers just barely containing the nervous energy that he feels.

"Regardless…of just how powerful you are, I won't let myself be bullied by you."

Now her laugh sounds more like the age she wears on her face.

"Wow! Me? A bully? That's just rich! Oh alright. I'll humor you this time."

She goes to sit on empty air and finds a desk waiting for her derriere.

"That's Kumagawa Misogi. The absolute worst, best complete incomplete Minus that I have ever met. The only one that I've met with a skill that can overcome all of mine."

"He's that strong? I though Minus's were weak?"

"Like yourself?"

He frowns and furrows his brows ever so slightly but otherwise says nothing.

"...You're no fun. Yes, yes. He's that strong. Never mind that he had taken a Skill that I had given him and warped it to be his own when I had to trade for his original Minus. He had used both of those to seal my powers before and he has both of them now along with another skill of mine and one of his own. Really. He's become quite the handful."

"And so what now then? Do you intend to kill me so I can harm him?"

He had figured with the way she spoke about him, with all it's pride and affection, that she would try that. After all, they're friends in an unfamiliar world. They would need to team up or else-

"Oh no. Just the opposite actually!"

"The opposite..."

"I want to help you rid this world of him."

That's right. They've been enemies since the moment she had told him about how she felt about living and he came to care. Now that he had graduated though was he actually something of a threat. But only about as much as a cockroach is a threat on someone's relaxation time.

Now, she wasn't going to leave any room for hope in his life here. This world was where she was going to finally die. Not by choice mind, it was just a matter of convenience. She had scoped this place out awhile ago after all.

It should be clarified now but it's completely idiotic for her to have given away Hundred Gauntlets like that to a Main Character, of course. Especially to someone else that could twist it into something else like Kamijou Touma. She's been trying to stay at least somewhat hidden before today but it doesn't matter anymore.

If she has to, she'll kill him.

If she has to, she'll kill everyone on this planet.

If she has to, she'll destroy this universe.

If she has to, she'll destroy every possible world that had existed, exists, or ever will exist.

"That includes the ones with people that happen to read shitty fanfiction. Which goes double for their less than mediocre authors."

"What was that?"

"Don't worry Edd! Just knocking on the 4th wall a bit for our dear readers."

She'll do all that and more to release herself from the boredom of living.

He'll do all that and more to save her life.

They're both far too broken to be redeemed, in more ways than one, but they hardly notice it at this point.

That their motivations aren't quite what they make them out to be.

This story is going to follow the main NT storyline fairly closely. There will of course be changes, such as hopefully making everyone's favorite pretty fridge boy not job so fucking hard goddamnit Kakine, but I want this to be more Kumagawa and Kamijou do Academy City than Kumagawa's Bizarre Adventure if you catch my drift. Anyway, this is it for awhile since I had everything until this point mostly done before I posted them here. I'll get started on the next part tomorrow so if you have questions or whatever go ahead and ask via PM or whatever else this site has. I'm getting better used to the site but I'm still pretty dumb about it sometimes. See you in the next update!