「 ✦ Shizuku Yaegashi ✦ 」
How did things turn out this way?
The question burned through my mind as the cold steel twisted deeper into my back. Blood filled my mouth, metallic and warm, as I stared into Nia's face—the same face that had smiled at me every morning for months. But now her eyes were empty. Hollow. Like looking into a broken mirror.
The pain was nothing compared to the betrayal.
Everything started falling apart the moment Ai-chan vanished. Then Princess Liliana disappeared too. I should have known. The signs were all there, gnawing at me day after day like some disease I couldn't cure. But I was such a fool to ignore them.
"You're overreacting, Shizuku," Kouki had said during our last practice session, that same infuriating smile on his face. "Everything's fine."
When had he ever been right about anything that mattered?
And now the royal capital was about to be overrun by a hundred thousand demon forces. There was not nearly enough force—the damned barrier was already shattered—to give us a fighting chance.
Blood dripped from my nose as Nia slammed my face into the stone floor again. When had she gotten this strong? The maid who used to stumble while carrying tea trays was now holding me down like I weighed nothing.
Even through the haze of pain, my mind kept working. Kept analyzing. It was the only thing keeping me sane.
"There's no way that's the case," Eri had said whenever I voiced my concerns about the palace soldiers. How their eyes had grown dull and lifeless over the past weeks. How they moved like puppets on strings.
Gods, I was so stupid. So very, very stupid.
I know I couldn't have seen this coming. None of us could have predicted this. But watching Eri now, standing in the royal coliseum's viewing box with that twisted smile on her face while we—her classmates, her friends—bled on the arena floor...
The urge to curse her, this world, and everything in it nearly overwhelmed me.
"What... what is the meaning of this?" I gasped between ragged breaths, blood spattering from my lips. "Eri!"
"Hahahaha!" Her laugh echoed through the coliseum, sharp and brittle. "I should have known you'd be the one to give me trouble until the very end, Shizuku."
This wasn't the Eri I knew. The timid girl who hid behind thick glasses and stammered when teachers called on her. This creature wearing her face had eyes that burned with madness, a smile that belonged in nightmares.
It had started three hours ago, right when the great barrier covering the capital shattered. Eri had suggested we visit the capital's main plaza—"for morale," she'd said.
The knights already gathered there in massive numbers should have been our first warning. Some of my classmates looked relieved at the show of military strength. But all I felt was a cold weight settling in my stomach.
The knights looked wrong. Pale, haggard, moving with the jerky motions of marionettes. Their eyes held no spark of life, no recognition when they looked at us. They were shells wearing familiar faces.
They surrounded us in perfect formation while the vice-captain delivered some rambling speech about God and destiny and the holy mission of heroes. Pretty words that meant nothing. Then came the flash of blinding light.
I was the only one who hadn't been caught off guard. Maybe it was paranoia. Maybe it was instinct. But when that light erupted, I'd already been moving, already shouting a warning that came too late.
My classmates collapsed like broken dolls. I remained standing, but what good did it do? Thousands of knights pressed in from all sides. Even I couldn't fight those numbers. And when Nia—sweet, clumsy Nia whom I'd trusted with my life—drove her blade between my ribs...
"I really am glad," Eri said, her voice dripping with false sentiment. "So very glad we got summoned to this world. Getting rid of all of you would have been much harder back in Japan."
How long had she been planning this?
How long had she been pretending to be our friend while plotting our deaths?
"What do you want?!" Ryutarou shouted from where he was pinned beneath three knights. "Why are you doing this?!"
Eri's smile widened, showing too many teeth. "What I want? I only want one thing."
She descended from the viewing box with graceful steps, moving like a queen approaching her throne. The knights parted before her. When she reached Kouki, she cupped his face with hands that seemed too gentle for what she'd become.
"I want only Kouki-kun," she whispered. "Nothing else matters."
Then she kissed him. Not a gentle kiss. Not the shy peck you'd expect from the old Eri. This was hungry, desperate, possessive and horny.
She pressed against him like she was trying to devour him, her fingers tangling in his hair. When they finally broke apart, a thin strand of saliva connected their lips.
The sight made my stomach churn. From the look on Kouki's face—confusion, disgust, betrayal—he felt the same way.
"Don't fuck with me!" The words exploded from my throat before I could stop them. "If you loved him, you should have just—"
"That won't work," Eri interrupted, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Kouki is tooooo kind, you know? He won't show preferential treatment, even when he's surrounded by trash. So I'm doing him the favor of getting rid of all of you."
Her tone was so casual, so matter-of-fact.
"The knights," I said, pieces clicking together in my mind. "Are they your doing too?"
"Correct!" She clapped her hands together like a delighted child. "It's my magic—one that revives the dead but strips away their souls, turning them into my obedient puppets!"
"That's impossible!" The words came out automatically, but even as I said them, I knew they weren't true. The evidence was all around us. Knights who moved without breathing, who felt no pain, who followed orders mindlessly.
But if they were truly dead, how could they still look so alive? How could they access the memories and mannerisms of the people they'd once been?
Eri's smile turned predatory. "Let me show you just how possible it is."
She gestured to one of the knights, who handed her a sword. The blade gleamed in the light of the moon as she approached Kondou—one of the boys who'd made Nagumo's school life hell back in Japan.
"Eri, no!" Kouki struggled against his captors. "He's our classmate! He's—"
The sword punched through Kondou's chest with a wet, tearing sound. His eyes went wide, blood bubbling from his lips as he looked down at the steel protruding from his heart.
"How dare you—" Kouki's voice cracked with rage and horror.
But it was Suzu who took it the worst. She'd curled into a ball, sobbing hysterically. Earlier, Eri had revealed that their friendship had been a lie—that she'd only pretended to care about Suzu to get closer to Kouki. Another preconceived cruelty.
"Poor Suzu-chan," Eri cooed, her voice dripping with sarcastic sympathy. "Did you really think someone like me would be friends with someone like you? You were just a tool. A stepping stone."
Kondou's body hit the ground with a dull thud. But Eri wasn't finished. She began chanting, her voice rising in a deranged, maniacal rhythm that made my teeth ache.
"Spirit Binding," she called out, completing the spell.
Light erupted around Kondou's corpse. When it faded, he was standing again. His wounds were still there, his skin still pale as parchment. But his eyes... his eyes were the same empty voids I'd seen in the knights.
Dread crawled up my spine like ice water.
We were all going to die.
And then we'd be forced to kill each other as mindless puppets.
"I wonder how it feels," Eri mused, turning those mad eyes on me, "to watch Shizuku kill her best friend."
What?
The world seemed to tilt. She was going to kill me. Turn me into one of her walking corpses. And then she'd make me murder Kaori with my own hands.
"Ah—"
The sound escaped my throat before I could stop it. A broken, desperate noise that barely qualified as human speech. As if summoned by my despair, Kaori's voice rang out across the plaza.
Kaori, who should've been safe with Nagumo, was here.
"Everyone! Hold on!"
She burst through the main entrance with Princess Liliana at her side. Relief flooded through me so intensely it was almost painful. But it was quickly followed by terror. Why did she have to come now? Why couldn't she have stayed away?
"Fear not!" Liliana raised her staff, golden light erupting around us. "I shall protect you all!"
A barrier shimmered into existence, stopping the knights mid-charge. Kaori immediately began casting healing magic, her gentle warmth washing over our injuries. For a moment, hope arose in my chest. Maybe we could still—
"Hurry up and kill her, you idiots!" Eri shrieked, her calm finally cracking. The mask of sanity was slipping, revealing the writhing madness beneath.
"Shirasaki! Princess!"
Daisuke Hiyama stumbled through the barrier, covered in wounds but very much alive. Suspicion immediately clawed at my mind. How had he escaped when even Kouki couldn't break free?
"No!" I tried to shout a warning, but blood filled my throat. "Kaori! Stay away from him!"
It was too late. I watched in slow-motion horror as Hiyama's sword emerged from Kaori's stomach, the blade slick with her blood.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Both Eri and Hiyama dissolved into maniacal laughter. "Dumbass!"
"I knew it!" Hiyama was practically foaming at the mouth, his face twisted with years of suppressed hatred. "I was always better than Nagumo! Right, Kaori? You'd choose me, wouldn't you?"
At this point, Liliana's barrier was getting overwhelmed. All while that bastard licked my best friend's face with his tongue, pressed his pants against her back, and touched her breasts with his spare hand while the other held the sword that was still buried in her flesh.
The sight made bile rise in my throat.
"Nakamura!" Hiyama called out. "Hurry up and keep your promise!"
Eri sighed. "Fine, fine. I suppose I should get this over with."
"Eri!" Kouki's voice was raw with rage. I could hear bones creaking as he strained against his captors with inhuman strength.
"Stop it, Eri!" Yuka screamed, followed by a chorus of desperate pleas from our remaining classmates.
But Hiyama's expression suddenly changed to confusion.
"What... no, no, no!"
He yanked the sword out and began stabbing Kaori repeatedly, each thrust accompanied by wet, tearing sounds that would haunt my nightmares forever.
Yet somehow, through it all, Kaori kept chanting. Her voice never wavered, never stopped, even as her life bled out onto the stone floor.
Light exploded from her body.
Healing magic more powerful than anything I'd ever felt washed over us in waves. Our wounds closed, our strength returned, and the swords that had been pinning us to the ground were pushed out by our rapidly healing flesh.
"Damn it!" Eri's scream was barely human now. "YOU JUST HAD TO GET IN MY WAY EVERY TIME!"
Kouki erupted from his captors like a force of nature. His Overload skill activated, multiplying his physical abilities fivefold. Knights that had seemed invincible moments before were torn apart like paper dolls as he carved a path toward Kaori.
I followed in his wake, my own blade singing through the air. Each swing cut down dozens of the undead knights. My muscles screamed in protest, my wounds reopened from the strain, but I didn't care.
Absolute nothing mattered except reaching Kaori.
Behind us, Liliana was cutting the bonds of our classmates and distributing weapons. A counterattack born of pure fury and desperation had begun.
But as Kouki closed in on Eri, a familiar figure stepped into his path. My heart nearly stopped.
"Not you too, Meld-san!" Kouki's voice cracked with anguish.
Captain Meld, our instructor and mentor, stood between Kouki and his target. But his eyes were empty, his movements lifeless. Another puppet in Eri's collection.
I kept fighting my way across the plaza, cutting down anything that moved. The space was enormous—easily the size of a football field—and packed with enemies everywhere.
Every step forward cost me blood and breath I couldn't afford to lose.
"Kaori!" I shouted over the din of battle. "Get out of my way! I said GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
From the corner of my eye, I saw Kouki collapse. Eri's laughter rang out across the battlefield.
"Took a while to work, but it finally did," she called out cheerfully. "Amazing what you can accomplish with a poisoned kiss!"
The realization hit me. She'd poisoned him during that obscene display. Everything—the kiss, the declarations of love—had been part of her plan.
Kouki was down. Our strongest fighter, eliminated by his own emotions and naive trust. If he hadn't wasted time fighting an undead Meld, if he'd just focused on the real threat...
My distraction cost me. Pain exploded through my back as multiple blades found their mark. I was dragged down, pinned once again by overwhelming numbers.
Nia appeared above me, her empty eyes reflecting nothing as she drove her dagger home again and again. On Eri's command, she positioned me so I was forced to watch as our tormentor approached Kaori.
One by one, my classmates fell. We'd fought with everything we had, but it wasn't enough. It was never going to be enough.
"Nooooooooooo!" The scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate.
Eri raised her hands above Kaori's broken form, dark energy crackling between her fingers. In moments, my best friend would join the ranks of the walking dead. And I would be forced to watch her soulless corpse dance to Eri's tune.
The spell began to form, malevolent light gathering around Eri's hands.
But then everything stopped.
A presence filled the air. Even the undead knights seemed to sense it. Eri's spell faltered, her concentration broken by whatever was approaching.
In the sudden silence, I heard footsteps.
Someone was coming.
And from the look of terror that flashed across Eri's face—the first genuine emotion I'd seen from her all day—whoever it was, they weren't here to help her.