Multiple footsteps echoed as the Arius Squad made their way through the destroyed remains of the place. As they got closer and closer, more buildings seemed to have fallen under the effect of the earlier explosion Atsuko had experienced.
Step by step, every corner they turned, every landmark they passed by, most of them were destroyed, leaving behind nothing but rubbles and dust clouds.
It looked as if... something had been rammed into them.
"This... Did some godzilla fight here or something? Why is everything so devastated?" Misaki voiced out.
"Godzilla?! Godzilla... that's the big bad monster inside the magazine, right?" Hiyori shivered slightly at the thought of such massive adversity. "I... my bullet can't pierce through godzilla..."
"I was being sarcastic. There's no way godzilla exists in the real world, you know?" Sighing slightly, Misaki turned back her attention to the road.
There's nothing much to be said other than the fact everything somehow looked more depressing. With the bodies of their peers (they're unconscious, not dead) laying around, somehow none of them were trapped under the rubbles.
Was it a miracle or had someone miraculously prevented such an outcome?
"Stop. We've arrived." At Saori's word, they finally arrived at the church. "...Let's go in."
For some reason, she had been feeling some kind of anxiety since the moment she took notice of the destruction around them.
They seemed eerie, not at all destructive.
Everything seemed way too quiet for something of such a large scale. Of course, she herself had been unconscious most of the time.
"Are you sure? Weren't we banned from entering this place?" Misaki warned as she felt her sleeve being tugged by Atsuko, who seemed to be begging with her eyes to follow through.
"...You heard her. We have no choice." Saori concluded at Atsuko's insistence.
Muttering a 'whatever' to herself, Misaki decided not to care too much and just follow their leader.
Saori's hand landed on the door, but before she pushed it, someone else did.
Azusa has had a very grim expression. Of course, by 'grim', it was her originally blank face which seemed to not include any thoughts whatsoever.
But after knowing her for a while, it turned out to be quite simple to tell what she's thinking.
It was especially obvious when the emotions were happiness.
Her wings would be flapping uncontrollably after all.
This could, more often than not, be seen anytime she's in the presence of Kasuka.
Something about her just really clicks with Azusa.
And now that she had suddenly revealed her abilities which are stronger than them... She suddenly became curious.
She wanted to know more about the brown haired girl.
What she likes to eat.
When is her birthday?
Where'd she learn to fight?
Whether this 'unconscious' version of herself was truly her.
...Did she have fun with them?
These questions floated around in her head with nobody to satiate the answers.
And for some reason, she got a crippling feeling that it'll never be answered.
"..."
They entered through the entrance.
And they saw...
It was a massive hole, one that isn't visible from the front entrance as it went through the entirety of the backside.
Something extremely creepy was laying on the ground on the other side, its entire upper side missing.
But that wasn't what their attention landed on.
It was... a familiar back.
Facing downwards, halo nowhere in sight.
The scene overlapped with a vision of the past. The very first encounter between the 'Squad' and 'Kasuka'.
Like back then, she was once again standing her ground even while unconscious.
At first, everyone flinched slightly. It was a momentary lapse of judgement after all. What if she suddenly started attacking them again like before?
There's no way they could handle it.
But as they got closer, they suddenly felt some kind of... premonition.
It was as if they could sense the dread hovering around the air.
Nobody said anything, yet they all synonymously understood the implication.
And they finally got close enough to confirm their suspicion.
"...Please, tell me this is a dream."
Nobody knows who said it, yet there's nobody that would claim to have said it either.
They are all thinking of similar things after all.
"It's alright, she's just unconscious. When she wakes up, we can... we can..." Saori's words got caught up in her throat, her finger checking for any sign of pulse and breathing, pressing her finger under Kasuka's neck, hovering her fingers under Kasuka's nose...
All didn't bring in the result they expected.
"W-we can...!"
"Leader." It was Misaki's determined voice that brought her out of her stupor.
Turning her gaze, which had unknowingly turned blurry, she found out that Misaki had long since moved away towards the creepy figure on the ground.
Although... her eyes seemed a bit redder than usual.
"Madame, she's dead."
"..."
"There's nobody else that would fit the profile." As she said this, she bent over and grabbed one of the limbs attached to it, struggling slightly to lift it.
"It's exactly her color theme, red and white."
Cold calculating terms, but Saori could somewhat see what she was trying to convey.
Misaki was distracting herself from the truth with another bombshell.
And... It worked.
The news of Madame's death sent a wave through everyone present as their gaze turned to Kasuka's lifeless body, still standing on her own two feet.
They finally connected the dots.
The massive hole, Madame, signs of fighting, they all started with her.
She had freed them from the grasp of an adult.
In a way, she had allowed her 'Beacons' to shine brightly without a glass panel to change their natural color.
But at the cost of freedom, the person who was deemed most deserving of it wasn't there to feel it.
Saori's gaze fell weakly on the floor, teeth gritted and fist clenched as more and more tears dripped from her eyes.
Azusa watched lifelessly as Kasuka's body stayed standing, never to fall, yet not a single tear escaped.
Hiyori hiccupped uncontrollably, sobbing escaped occasionally as she tried to control the sounds of her own grief.
Misaki turned her back away, not willing to witness the cruel truth that had been served on a silver plate.
Atsuko... couldn't help it anymore. Without a hint of elegance, she vomited outright at the thought.
Following it was tears and sobs as she tried to wipe her face clean.
But she can't prevent the tears from ruining her face.
But even as everything left her body, the churn circulating inside her stomach wouldn't leave her alone.
Almost as if it was mocking her.
Step Step Step
"...Hm. A bad day for rain, it seemed." Nobody had the energy to turn around to see the adult that had intruded in this place.
A mask covering her face, but her long hair showed that it was indeed a woman.
"Really didn't take that long, huh?" She said off-handedly, grinning ear to ear behind the mask.
"My turn."
It was the same instructor Kasuka had met during her first meeting with Azusa, the one that had kicked her twice, on the stomach and on the head.
---
"Agh!" Clutching her chest, Akuta scrambled around to look at her surroundings.
Noticing the unfamiliar place, she realized the fact that she had just been kicked out of the simulation. "...Wait, what happened?"
[Host's simulation ends at the moment of Host's 'Death'.]
"Wait, I died!? Fuck!" Stomping her feet, Akuta gritted her teeth as she mumbled to herself something along the lines of: 'I could've milked them better if I was still alive... What a shame!'
"Then, does that mean I can't go back into that simulation?"
[Affirmative.]
Sighing slightly, Kasuka lamented her fate as someone who could no longer claim access to the Arius District.
"Whatever. Spilled milk shouldn't be cried over or something, at least tell me, did I disrupt Beatrice's plan?" Akuta said as she moved towards the closed window, not expecting much from the system.
But what she read next turned her world upside down.
[Entity 'Beatrice' has died under the hand of the actor 'Karumi Kasuka'. Congratulations, Host.]
"???"
She died?! Just like that!?
What kind of antagonist is this!? Can't even handle a bullet or two!?
Although she was shocked, she wasn't feeling unpleasant. After all, the greatest way to destroy someone's ego would totally be... to kill them!
Like hell that's the case!
Akuta had expected to get at least a limb from Beatrice, not her entire life!
But this works too!
Her bewildered face turned into a grin, a laugh escaping her lips which became more prominent the longer it went on.
"Hahahaha" turned into "HAHAHAHA"
It was as if she was cosplaying that death god guy with a book.
After death, Akuta laughed. Not out of shame, not out of pain, but out of amusement.
She had died after killing the most annoying antagonist of the game (that she knew of).
The simulation couldn't have gone better!
Just like Icarus!
He knew he achieved his goal after realizing his wings were starting to burn!
There's no greater feeling in the world!
So what if she died? She had at least settled her grief from her original life inside the simulation!
Get rekt!