In this world, there is a current that no amount of desperate wishing can stop. That chain of causality—what some might call fate—is something a small, insignificant human cannot hope to resist. Even those who harbor a spark of divinity within them sometimes find themselves surrendering to that flow. There are many things I wish for that simply will not come true. But isn't it part of being human to cling to the bitter end and try to escape reality as long as possible?
"If the power of feelings is truly proportional to a Sacred Gear's ability, then listen to me, Partner! Take my sincere, desperate plea... and erase this hellish summer vacation from existence!"
"Kanata, you're making those impossible requests of your Partner again," Lavinia noted.
By the way, my Partner sent back a single, concise thought:
Well, I'd learned through my training with Professor Azazel that my current self couldn't erase things like time, space, or causality. More importantly, I had no idea how I would even begin to erase something so abstract. No matter how hard I wished, if I didn't understand the process, I was helpless.
I let out a heavy sigh, my shoulders slumping. Deep down, I'd already accepted that summer vacation was unavoidable, so I resigned myself to preparing for our trip to the Underworld. I packed my vampire-prevention kit as I had last time and tucked the crucifix Masaomi gave me into my backpack. Though, realistically, I doubted the same trick would work on Tannin twice.
"Haa... why is Tannin such a Spartan? He told me that the moment we arrive in the Underworld, he wants a demonstration of the last year's results..."
"It is common practice to begin with a mock battle to assess our growth and determine the next stage of our training," Lavinia said. "Though I admit it is quite taxing for the ones involved..."
Lavinia and I shared a dry laugh. Even with our Sacred Gears, the prospect of fighting a Dragon King was enough to make anyone want to cry. Under normal circumstances, this was a fate I would have avoided at all costs. But the "training flag" had been planted a year ago, and because I hadn't been able to break it, here we were. Last year was so chaotic with the Kuoh incident that I hadn't even had the time to think of a way to dodge the summer flag.
Tomorrow was the day. Mephisto was going to open a magic circle and take us to the Underworld personally. Since Lavinia and I couldn't make the trip ourselves, we needed our guardian to escort us. Apparently, Professor Azazel was going to rendezvous with us there later. It felt a bit much to have all these big names involved in my vacation. I'd played online games with Azazel recently, but it had been a while since I'd seen him in the flesh. I was grateful he was making time for me, but the fear that the intensity of the training was about to level up was very real.
"Still... a battle, huh? I don't think I'll be able to find an opening for a crucifix attack this time."
"Indeed," Lavinia agreed. "Last year, Tannin was holding back considerably and was overconfident. However, he is a dragon with high combat instincts. He will certainly have prepared a counter-strategy for the opponents who defeated him, and he isn't the type to allow a second loss due to pride."
"So he knows us well enough to ensure he doesn't get dragged into our 'field,' then."
Thinking back, most of the enemies I'd faced had looked down on me or been overconfident. It's only natural—getting serious against human children would be considered immature. That was exactly how I'd managed to snatch victories from the strong; by ruthlessly exploiting those gaps in their armor. I have zero interest in fighting an opponent on their own terms. My entire strategy is built on dragging them down into the dirt, while being very careful not to let them realize it's happening.
But this was a rematch against a powerhouse who knew my bag of tricks. To be honest, the odds were abysmal. Tannin knew Lavinia and I had no intention of fighting him head-on. When I'd consulted Professor Azazel about it, he'd just laughed. "He'll definitely be on guard. You two are unpredictable, for better or worse."
If we tried a direct clash without any tricks, we wouldn't stand a chance even if the world turned upside down. Tannin wasn't soft enough to be beaten by sheer guts or spirit. And since he'd explicitly stated the mock battle would dictate our future training regimen, we couldn't just roll over. If we put on a pathetic showing, he'd decide our "spirit" needed correcting, and our summer would become a living nightmare. We had to give it everything.
So, we had to fight an opponent who knew we were going to cheat. How do you beat a pure power-type in an impossible game like that?
"Did the Governor General give you any advice?" Lavinia asked.
"From the Professor? Um... he said: 'If you two have any chance of victory, it'll be by using your weapons and your strengths to their absolute maximum to disrupt the flow of the battle'."
"Our weapons are our Sacred Gears and our magic," Lavinia mused. "But even then..."
"We can't reach him," I finished.
We couldn't win a fair fight. In moments like this, I envied the "Strong." Any of my other associates could face Tannin head-on without this kind of anxiety. Come to think of it, why am I only ever fighting opponents with such massive power gaps? I don't even have a dragon-type Gear. The unfairness is staggering.
Ajuka, Diehauser, Azazel, Mephisto—they could all hold their own against Tannin. Even Lüdiger and Masaomi knew how to fight a losing battle without actually losing. I wished I could just send them as my substitutes. Even for training purposes, fighting the Blaze Meteor Dragon was just not normal.
Wait. If connections are a weapon too, then pitting a final-boss-class entity against another isn't wrong, is it?
"…Hold on. If our network is a weapon, then building a path through those connections is a valid way to fight, right?"
"Kanata?"
"Cleria and Luciana are sensible people, and their reactions were 'normal' for this world. Which means that same logic might work on Tannin, the representative of 'Sensible Dragons.' Plus, Masaomi is a former Exorcist; he knows all kinds of ways to repel Devils and monsters..."
If Tannin was already on guard for us targeting his Devil weaknesses, wouldn't it be better to just lean into it and aim for those weaknesses even harder?
"Sacred Gears take on the traits of their origin," I muttered. "A Dragon-type Gear makes you weak to Dragon Slayers but lets you breathe fire. Then an Ice-type Gear should technically share the properties of its base liquid—water. …Lavinia! Tell me, can you do this?"
"Eh? What is it?"
Lavinia muttered something about a "feeling of déjà vu," but she listened anyway. I explained my idea, keeping the image of Issei and the others from my memories in mind.
"…I've never tried that before," Lavinia said thoughtfully. "I believe it's possible. However..."
"However?"
"No... it's just that when the Governor General spoke of 'using our strengths to the maximum,' he might have been talking about you, Kanata. I'm glad you're on my side."
I tilted my head at her sigh of relief. Glad I'm on her side? Usually, it was the other way around. I was the one who was lucky to have a Longinus-wielder and master magician as a partner. I'd be dead a dozen times over without her. She was the one who gave my plans the power they needed to work. I'll use whatever I have to win, but without her, I have nothing.
Besides, if we ever actually fought, she'd win ten times out of ten. Picking a fight with a Longinus possessor is a death wish. But more than that, I could never hurt her. I couldn't even raise a weapon against her. Not because of physical strength, but for emotional reasons. Lavinia was a precious friend I never wanted to lose.
"I'll always be on your side, Lavinia. I could never be your enemy. We're partners in the Grau Zauberer, after all."
"Kanata... yes... you're right."
Lavinia hesitated for a moment. When she looked back at me, she was wearing her usual smile, her eyes narrowing gently. "I was just spacing out for a second," she added. Was I just imagining things? There was no reason for her to lie, and Mephisto had given his blessing for us to stay together. She was a beautiful, kind colleague who worked her heart out for others—a partner I probably didn't deserve.
That was enough for me. Even if I knew nothing of her past. I only knew the year we'd spent together. Lavinia was a character who never appeared in the twenty volumes of meta-knowledge I possessed from my previous life. My bond with her was strictly as Kanata Kuramoto. I didn't need "plot knowledge" to trust her.
The books mentioned that Sacred Gear possessors often suffered persecution or were feared by their families. I didn't know if that applied to Lavinia, but I wouldn't pry. If she wanted to tell me, she would. If she didn't, that was fine too. My support for her wasn't going to waver regardless of where she came from.
So, I'd let her hide behind her smile. "Right," I laughed, returning to our usual rhythm. We dropped the heavy talk and went back to strategizing for the fight against Tannin. With our plans set, we finished our preparations for the Underworld.
***
The next day. Mephisto escorted us to the Underworld ruins where Tannin was waiting, looking every bit the regal King. I greeted him, gushed about his match with the Emperor, and presented him with the formal thanks and gifts I'd prepared for his help last year.
He looked away for a second when I handed him the gifts, but then offered the predatory smirk of a dragon. I'd chosen a gift I thought would help a dragon's liver after his drinking sessions, and it seemed I'd made the right choice.
We stashed our gear in the old ruins, put our essentials in a smaller bag, greeted the Flame Dragons we'd stayed with previously, and fought off a literal dog-pile of dragon hatchlings that had grown significantly since last year. After promising to play with the kids later, I looked at the massive adult dragons waiting for us and felt my vision go a bit blurry.
Mephisto had stayed behind to watch, just as Professor Azazel had last time. I couldn't afford to look pathetic in front of my boss. Lavinia and I nodded to each other and stepped forward to face the Dragon King.
"We're in your hands, Tannin."
"Indeed. I shall give you my best effort. Do not expect things to go as they did last time."
He was holding back, as expected. But this wasn't a "one-hit" match. This was a test of growth; we had to hold our own until Tannin was satisfied. The "one-hit challenge" was apparently reserved for the end of the summer, which made me want to cry. For now, the goal was to show him everything we had.
"Now, show me your strength! Kanata Kuramoto! Lavinia Reni!"
"Here we go! My lovely doll—Absolute Demise!"
"And... Sacred Gear Unison: Ruin Lorn Scarlet!"
Lavinia's chant summoned the Ice Princess, and I immediately thrust my segmented spear into the ice. Training with a Longinus is dangerous, so we had spent the year focused on speed—minimizing the time it took to merge our powers. An enemy won't wait for a transformation sequence, after all.
A blizzard erupted from the Ice Princess, obscuring us and hindering Tannin's movements as the doll transformed. I watched the process and prepared the trump card I'd spent months making with Masaomi. Tannin watched our activation speed with an amused grin.
"Hmph. You've focused on the practicalities of combat. Your decisiveness has improved. However, I learned the patterns of that doll last year. Let's see how much more you can—"
"One more! Item Unison! All that Holy Water I made with Masaomi! Inside the Ice Princess!"
"Wait, what—?!"
I pulled out a massive supply of Holy Water I'd been keeping in a magic-storage bag and hurled it into the god-slayer's ice. Tannin's jaw dropped, and Mephisto put a hand to his head. Our only real way to hurt Tannin was with Holy power, but he was expecting us to target that weakness. My solution was to make every attack a weakness.
It's common knowledge that ice contains water. That's primary school science. So I decided to imbue the water within the ice with Holy power. Just as we'd tested in the Association training hall, the orbs of Holy Water were absorbed into the manifesting Absolute Demise.
"Manifest! Saint-Demise Gear Doll!"
Lavinia's blue aura and my crimson aura merged, and I used Rewrite to eliminate the internal resistance between the Sacred Gear and the Holy Water, forcing them into a perfect affinity. Sacred Gears were made by God; there was no reason they should be incompatible with Holy power. Normally, affecting someone else's Gear is impossible, but I was just erasing the friction. Once the Holy Water circulated through the ice, it functioned perfectly.
"——! Impossible!"
The Ice Princess raised her arms, and a blizzard tore through the area. Tannin's eyes widened as he instinctively leaped back to escape the reach of the snow, his teeth gritted in frustration. Mephisto, standing further off, erected a barrier and let out a long sigh.
"I see... a blizzard imbued with Holy power," Mephisto mused. "Using the secondary environmental effects of Absolute Demise to create an automated anti-demon field. Truly a nightmare for anything with demonic or monstrous blood."
"It's more than that," Tannin added, his voice low. "The blizzard is sustained by the Gear. It's drawing the spent water back up from the snow on the ground, circulating it back into the doll to create a never-ending 'Saint-White' field. Any average Devil or monster would be severely burned just by touching a snowflake."
As expected, Mephisto and Tannin saw through the trick instantly. The blizzard was a happy accident; we'd tested the Holy Water unison yesterday, and while Lavinia and I were just cold, Cleria—who had come to watch—had been absolutely terrified by the aura.
As a Devil, her sensitivity to the Holy was her radar. Lavinia had confirmed the blizzard generated by the doll carried a potent exorcism trait. It was a terrifying ability, but it had its flaws: it required a massive amount of Holy Water to start, the supply was finite, and the blizzard itself was a passive effect we couldn't precisely control. It hurt anything demonic nearby, friend or foe.
"However," Tannin noted, "against someone like Mephisto who can maintain a constant barrier, it's not an insurmountable threat. And because the water is finite, the 'Saint-White' field has a limited range. If I burn the snow instead of letting it circulate, the effect will eventually dry up. Your circulation rate isn't 100%, is it? The power will fade over time..."
"…Spot on. Honestly, is it normal to figure that out just by looking?"
"It's called experience. What's not normal is children coming up with something this twisted."
"Hey!"
I couldn't help but protest. I'd just thought, 'Hey, maybe this will work?' and it did. Sacred Gears were amazing like that. And since Holy Water and Gears already existed, I figured someone would have thought of it. I'd seen Issei use Holy Water against Raiser Phenex, so the idea of weaponizing it for a Devil-fight was stuck in my head.
"Fusing Sacred Gears, imbuing them with Holy Water... this kind of free-thinking is your greatest weapon, Kanata," Mephisto noted. "It's a strength that those of us who are ancient, those who have never needed to innovate, or those who simply follow the 'common sense' of this world can never possess."
"Is that... a compliment?"
"It is. Now, enough talk. Tannin is about to move. His flames can incinerate even a holy blizzard. Don't be careless."
"I can't afford to be 'careless' against a Dragon King."
Tannin was a Satan-class being. Holy Water was a weakness, but it wasn't a win-button. In a one-hit match, the blizzard would have ended it, but this was a test of endurance. Tannin was going to move aggressively to eliminate the doll. A bit of holy snow wouldn't stop him for long.
Still, I thought about the monster-catching games I played in my old life. A weather-based strategy (Sandstorm/Hail) was great for chip damage. Tannin would have to use his demonic power to shield his body, which meant he'd be burning energy faster and couldn't unleash a maximum-output attack as easily.
I wasn't going to fight on his terms. Last time, the Gear Doll was a decoy; this time, it was a "Hit and Away" engine for environmental damage. We just had to dodge his fire, close in for a quick blizzard burst, and retreat.
I've literally built a Skarmory strategy, I thought. Holy Water is poison for monsters, the doll is a massive physical tank, and it flies at high speed. Now I just need a healing move.
Actually, with my Gear, I could probably trigger a full recovery for the doll. I had the "Roost" move ready too. Fire was our weakness, but the synergy was strong. I decided that one day I'd build a real team like this and use it against Professor Azazel.
"Alright, the plan is working. Lavinia, get on my back. I'll handle the movement and the distractions this time."
"Understood. I've already cast the Underworld-adaptation spell on you. I'll focus entirely on the doll."
Lavinia used magic to secure herself to my back and gripped her wand. The weakness of an Independent-Manifestation Gear is that the host is a sitting duck. During the unison, Lavinia's focus is entirely on the doll, leaving her defenseless. My job was to be her legs. With her arms around my neck and her body secured by magic, I had both hands free for my spear.
I gripped my Partner with my left hand and put distance between us and the escalating clash of the dragon and the doll. My training had increased my "Erasure Slots" to five. I was using four of them on the Saint-Demise Gear Doll (one for Holy Water affinity and three for the Gear effects). That left me with only one slot for myself. I couldn't use it to attack; I had to save it for evasion.
Tannin spared us a glance but focused back on the doll. Just like last year, only a Longinus could face him head-on. Lavinia was the threat. If I tried to throw a crucifix, he'd smell the holy aura and swat it out of the air instantly.
The same trick wouldn't work twice. And because I was using my power for movement, I couldn't use the Gear for offense. My magic was useless against him. My only role was protecting Lavinia while she piloted our tank.
"But just running away isn't enough to win..."
Tannin was right; time was our enemy. The doll alone couldn't reach him. I had to become a threat myself—something he couldn't ignore. I decided to try the method I'd discussed with my team.
To be honest, I didn't think it would physically affect a being with Tannin's aura. But because Tannin was a "sensible" dragon, it was an attack he couldn't ignore. I can nullify status effects myself, but if someone fired that thing at me, I'd be terrified. Mentally, it was a nightmare. No one wants to be hit by it. You dodge it out of sheer survival instinct.
I hid among the trees, watching the blizzard-wracked battlefield. As Tannin prepared to breathe a long-range fire blast, I reached into my coat and gripped my secret weapon. I wrapped myself in the Gear's aura and sprinted into range. Tannin noticed me, his eyes widening in surprise. He knew I had no offensive options. He knew a crucifix wouldn't work.
But he didn't know about this. I shouted the name of the weapon as I pulled it out.
"TAKE THIS, TANNIN! AZAZEL'S PROTOTYPE GENDER-SWAP GUN!!"
"GENDER-SWA—?! GUAAAAAAAH!?"
He flew. The Dragon King literally did a backflip in mid-air to avoid the beam. Even if it had hit, he could have probably neutralized it with his aura—Miltan had, after all. But nobody, and I mean nobody, stays calm when they see a "Gender-Swap Gun" aimed at them.
I didn't mention it was a prototype. And the most effective part was the brand name: Azazel. Everyone knew the Governor General put his heart and soul into the most ridiculous things imaginable. A secret weapon from that man was a mystery box of terror. I knew it wouldn't work on Tannin, but he didn't know that. He wasn't willing to bet his gender on a "maybe."
The reckless evasion left him wide open. The Ice Princess delivered a perfectly timed strike of holy frost. Tannin stopped in his tracks, momentarily paralyzed by the holy energy. I vanished back into the forest, erasing my presence, and waited for the next opening. Every time Tannin tried to focus on the doll, I'd pop out and fire a "Gender-Swap Beam," forcing him into a panic.
I occasionally hit the doll with friendly fire, but since it was a non-sentient mass of ice, it didn't have a gender or feelings to worry about. If anything, Lavinia leaned into it, using the beams to lead Tannin into her line of fire. Lavinia is ruthless when she wants to be, I thought.
"…Well now. Even as a Devil, I find those tactics remarkably demonic," Mephisto noted from the sidelines.
"MEPHISTO! WHAT KIND OF EDUCATION ARE YOU GIVING THESE KIDS!?" Tannin roared, his voice echoing through the canyon. "THEY'RE LEARNING PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE! THEY'VE GROWN UP TO BE MENACES!!"
"I have a 'hands-off' policy, I just let them do what they like," Mephisto replied. "Honestly, I think Azazel, Lüdiger, and Ajuka have had more of an influence on them lately."
"EVERY NAME YOU JUST LISTED IS A LEADING CANDIDATE FOR 'MOST DISREPUTABLE ADULT'!!"
Classic Tannin. That was a top-tier retort. The Governor General who was a "manifestation of insincerity." The Master Strategist who loved mental attacks. The Transcendental Satan who did whatever he wanted. I've talked to Diehauser too, and aside from his sister obsession, he's actually the only normal Devil I know. Surrounded by these "characters," of course I was going to be influenced. Everyone here is an outlier.
After a while, the mock battle finally ended. The moment we stopped, Tannin used magic to shrink into his small-dragon form and delivered a sharp tail-swipe to my head. He tried to crush the Gender-Swap Gun in his fury, but I managed to save it by reminding him it was a loan from the Professor.
"I'm going to murder that idiot first," the Dragon King growled, his aura flaring with predatory intent.
I was the one who pulled the trigger, but I offered a silent prayer for my teacher's soul anyway. Tannin is soft on kids, so I knew I was safe. My head throbbed, but I was still in one piece. Lavinia used her Gear to cool the bump on my head, Mephisto gave me a smile of combined admiration and exasperation, and my Partner sent a mental wave of
Hey! You were cheering me on during the fight! I thought. I felt a mental "shrug" in response. I poked the hilt of my spear in annoyance, but stopped when I saw Lavinia looking at me with a pitying expression.
And so, my second chaotic summer vacation in the Under-world began.
***
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