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Published at 23rd of January 2023 06:08:07 AM


Chapter 223

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Revisions.

It is a special ability that only the [Creators] have in this world, at least theoretically. Since there is a link between the [Creator] and [Creation], add to that the military girl's hints about using this world's power, Meteora built a theory in which the [Creator]'s intervention can affect their [Creation]. Simply put, the former can give the latter new abilities that they should not have.

This is also stated in the decrypted information that the members had received. It has the confirmation that "revisions" are possible. No further details are available, thus it is up to them to explore these "revisions" in this mission world.

'What should I do?' Shiro tapped his finger on the armrest while deep in thought. 'This will affect Madoka-chan's reward so a half-baked one is not allowed. Wait a minute—'

Memories came pouring down his mind. His usage of [Tail Gear], a mahou shoujo x super sentai hybrid, gave him an idea for her new power. Madoka did not retain most of her abilities as the Law of Cycles, but what would happen if there was a final form for her that allowed its free utilization?

'It is similar to my [Ultimate Chain]... Let's just call it [Madokami].'

He visualized her appearance when she is in that pillar of light. Her majestic, untouchable, and gentle aura made many Magical Girls feel safe. Her physical manifestation of light in her dreary world. Her self-sacrifice was born out of her resolve to make her world a better place.

Shiro is Madoka's mentor. He might not comprehend everything about her, as evident when he failed to predict Sayaka's actions, but he still understands her actions, motives, and ideals. It is important to know those as his main responsibility as a mentor is to help her walk in her "desired path". He does not choose the path that his students tread; his students do.

Shinji wants to be a better person? Then so be it.

Sayaka wanted to become an enforcer of justice? Alright.

Madoka wants to make her world a better place? That's fine too.

With these thoughts dominating his head, Shiro began to draw. He first outlined the manga panels before drawing the storyboard in his mind. As always, he did not use any guidelines and outlines thanks to the perfect control over his body. He added new layers to his software subconsciously as he did all of this. Everything came naturally to him. Since he did work as a mangaka in this world for over twenty years, it is reasonable to be like that.

Everyone did not sense the passage of time, preoccupied with whatever stuff they are doing. Meteora is surfing the web, researching everything about Saber and Fate series. Matsubara called in his light novel illustrator to do their revisions. Selesia is marveling at the coffee in this world while Souta volunteered to take care of everyone's snacks. Kuroneko is also focusing on her new revisions, with Kal'tsit's comments appearing now and then. Lastly, Madoka and Mamika are having a serious talk outside.

"The Ursines. They are more cunning and vicious."

"Hm."

"Mon3tr's prowess works better in close range. It should be supplemented by other long-ranged attacks."

"Hm."

"The Infected do not think like that unless they come from an affluent force."

"Hm."

Every few minutes, Kal'tsit would point out Kuroneko's mistakes. The latter took it seriously as she sees the former as a ten-thousand-year-old woman. Her knowledge repository and insights are deep enough to make a pit that connects the opposite ends of Earth. While Kuroneko does have her confidence, she's aware of her shortcomings. She knew well enough to not pretend that her flaws does not exist.

During the years before she met Kyousuke, she did not have any friends. She felt the unfairness of the world at that time, but various events made her realize that she was also the one at fault. She did not actively fix her problems, which led to her insipid early high school life. She does not lack appearance, she's cute even, but her subconscious act of pushing others away and continuous shielding of her true thoughts by acting as a chuunibyou labeled her as a 'weird' student, prompting others to stay away from her.

Now that she has friends, both in her world and the other worlds, she found her path.

These small interactions allowed Shiro to deduce her prior developments, making him feel happy for her. 

'We're the rowdy bunch back then.' He thought. 'Perhaps we became closer because of us seeking fun things. Though I find it funny that she's actively hiding it. Her expressions during those brief moments truly gave her away...'

During the Aincrad mission, Kuroneko came from a recent breakup. As in, the boy that she loved, Kyousuke, broke up with her and chose his BIOLOGICAL little sister instead. She could not do anything as she knew herself that this is their happy ending. As their friend, she silently acquiesced to their relationship no matter how forbidden it is.

Choosing to distract herself with novel things, she stuck with Shiro whenever they do quests, something that is abundant for him due to his luck. There, they encountered many strange ones like finding the peeper in the hot springs, going into an epic escapade due to a treasure map that turns out to be a troll in the end, and acquiring the rarest dagger in the most conspicuous and unexpected way.

"We're done."

Matsubara's declaration woke everyone up from their immersion.

"Oh?!"

Selesia eagerly looked at the light novel illustration made by Marine, Matsubara's light novel illustrator. She has short-cut curly brown hair and light hazel pupils. She wears eyeglasses, something common in the ACG industry whereas dozens of hours are spent in front of a computer.

On the other hand, the illustration is... insane. Colors are made by the proper knowledge of color theory, allowing everything to be in harmony. The gradient of the flame aura around Selesia is well done, plus the battlefield-Esque background made it look more epic.

"It's beautiful..!" The redhead said with sparkling eyes. Her excitement can be hardly hidden as she listened to Matsubara's translation of this revision.

"You have the variant of Wave Chant, the Flame Chant. It mostly focuses on Wave Chant's basic capabilities, which are heat-related. We stuck to the basics, so your damage output should be much higher than other variants."

In Selesia's world, their magic is something called [Wave Chant]. In simpler terms, it rips space apart, gathers the 'energy' in the said space, and launches it out as a form of attack. Most of these [Wave Chants] are non-elemental, though the concept behind them is surprising enough to the chat group members. If you told them that a normal soldier can rip apart space with his magic, something that can only be done with sufficient enough power, it is shocking indeed. More so when an entire battalion of soldiers can do this.

Thankfully, all of them learned how to be open-minded during these missions, helping them to accept these power systems being all over the place.

"I understand. An elemental attack is added compared to usual. It would definitely be stronger than the normal attacks." Selesia mused.

"We need to test if it will work."

Hearing this, the others' excitement was shaken off. Indeed, this would not matter if it does not work. An idea, in the end, will only remain as one unless acted upon in reality.

Everyone started to make some distance from Selesia, taking precautions in case her transformation is enough to burn their skin to a third-degree burn.

"Phew..." Selesia breathed out as she went into her transformation posture.

"Ajarakamokuren... Kyuraisu!"

Pssshhh-!

The sound of her unsheathing her blade resounded in the room. After that... there's no 'then'. Selesia successfully mimicked the posture in the illustration, only to be met with absolutely nothing. Fortunately for her, she did not feel embarrassed by such actions, treating it as a norm back in her world.

"It didn't work..."

"Sorry... Maybe I didn't draw it well enough..." Marine dejectedly said.

Selesia sheathed her sword before shaking her head.

"You didn't do anything wrong. It's because the creator did not put his heart into it!"

"Hey... There are some things that you can't say straightforwardly!"

While chaos ensued between the two, the others began analyzing why it did not work.

"We might have something missing."

Upon hearing Kuroneko, they got interested in what she was about to say.

"There should be some mechanisms on why it doesn't work. The military girl is confident that it will work. Her hubris is our confirmation."

"A plausible theory. We need to look further at this point to find out the underlying rules in this world's power." Meteora commented.

Thinking of the various clues spread before they began this mission, Shiro sensed something clicking in place.

'The collective subconscious!'

In the mission notes, it is subtly hinted that they had to act their roles in the eyes of "others". There's also the phrase 'Their will silently change their world' in the first few lines under the decrypted information. The will that actively rejects the supernatural in this world reminded him of the mechanism in the Fate world.

In the end, he chose to give this conjecture of his "publicly" some time later to avoid suspicions. For now, he would share it internally—that is, with the chat group members.

Ring-!

A default ringtone came from Matsubara's phone, saving him from the silent confrontation that he and his [Creation] are having. When he saw the caller's id, he had a premonition about what was about to happen.

Beep-!

"Hey, it's been a while!"

"It's been a while." The caller responded. "Well... Uh... Are you busy right now?"

"What's the problem?"

"Uh... How do I say this..."

"Don't tell me... Did an anime character show up in front of you?"

"..."

Matsubara's question is met by a period of silence before a loud outburst came from the opposite side.

"Thank goodness..! I don't know what to do right now!"

"I get you... Which character appeared, by the way?"

"My character. From Mono Magia."

"The protagonist? Kanoya... was it?"

"That's right. I—"

Crash-!

Suddenly, a shattering sound appeared in the opposite line. 

"What—!"

Buzz-!

Bam.

Something had seemingly hit the caller, making him drop his smartphone.

"...Clear..."

"Huh?"

Just as Matsubara is wondering on what happened to the caller, the jewel in Meteora's necklace turned bright red. This prompted her to have a serious expression. As for Shiro, he knew that her necklace is a magic tool, one that can detect malintent in the surroundings.

Crash-!

The windows of his house broke as he saw a small black cylinder being thrown right in his direction.

'An attack.'

Even without showing his supernatural abilities, he immediately reacted and caught the thing in his hand. Then, he swiftly threw it back to his window before a flash of light blinded the eyes of others. Fortunately for him, he closed his eyes, leaving him with ringing ears alone. Still, he is confident enough to take down more than two dozen men in this state.

A humanoid terminator, he is.

Bam-!

Bam-!

Bam-!

BAM-!

BAM-!

At this moment, his house not being a Japanese-styled one helped as the intruders are forced to enter through the doors instead. When they entered, he saw fully-armed men with a Heckler and Koch HK416. It is similar to an M4 but has different attachments and structures.

'The government!' He thought. 'Gun laws in Japan are strict, only they can raid us like this.'

"Stay behind me."

"A-alright."

Rarely did Kuroneko show her surprise, and this event is one of those. Even when she is caught off guard by something, she would pretend to not be shocked by it. Now that she felt what it is to be a normal high schooler in her senior years, she felt a familiar sensation once more. It occurred when she met her first love.

Tap-!

Tap-!

Hurried footsteps were heard all over the place. Matsubara, who is left stunned by the previous flashbang, got apprehended in less than a second, his face swept to the ground. Marine and Souta are fortunate enough to avoid this as they are already ducking. With the rest of the [Creations] being superhuman, they resisted the flashbang and began chaotic close-quarter combat.

"Is it her?!"

"No." Meteora replied to the crouching Souta. "Selesia, don't kill them."

"I know!

Surprisingly, Shiro is one of them.

'My memories did tell me that I am proficient in combat skills... Time to use what I could not in the past, then.'

He suddenly strode to one of the closest men and gave a punch to his solar plexus. It disabled the usual breathing rhythm and disrupted him, thus being incapacitated him with one strike.

Bam-!

Turning into another one, he struck the man's right elbow and made him lose his grip on the rifle. Then, he followed up with an uppercut using his left elbow. Since he is currently utilizing Bajiquan, the bodyguard style, short bursts are the key to his explosive power. His strikes are not many, but each of them is precise.

Bam-!

Bam-!

Bam-!

With each man, he only used one strike. His leg sweeps also caught some unexpectedly, allowing him to knock them up with an elbow blow. By the time his points are eight, an electric baton came crashing down to his neck.

Buzz-!

Shiro's body "shivered" as electric currents passed through them. The man holding the baton who saw this lowered his guard for a second, which is the biggest mistake at the moment.

Bam.

Grasping the man's left hand, the one holding the baton, he pulled him to his front before giving a blow to his face. This streak continued until the fifteenth man got beaten down. If not for the fact that he restricted himself from the lethal ones—bone-breaking moves and such—the count would be much higher.

"Huff..."

While he is catching his breath, he saw more men surrounding them. Each of them is pointing their rifles at them, prompting Meteora, Selesia, and Kal'tsit to stop. They knew that they can still fight, but what about their [Creators] who are normal people. Well... except for the guy who is catching his breath in another stance.

The former two somewhat knew that he is a combat master that bested several veterans based on his account, but this was something else. The specially trained operatives of JSDF... fifteen such men got down by the "mangaka" that they know of. The JSDF's unwillingness to use lethal weapons partially gave way to it, but his close-quarter combats are still insanely good.

'My vanity is now satisfied.'

Even after knowing that it is the JSDF, he still fought. No one can intrude on his abode without paying some kind of consequence. This is how he'd done things way back in his Magus and Fenrir life.

Showing a surrendering gesture, he then asked:

"Who are you?"

The armed men did not answer his question. Instead, one of them took out their radio. There, a deep voice came.

"We are the JSDF. Under the special order of the government, we are asking for your cooperation."

*****

Fact #101: The reason behind Bajiquan's moniker "bodyguard style" stems in the 1930's. Liu Yun Qiao, a student of Li Shuwen, became the bodyguard of Chiang Kai Shek (a former president of China). Due to its lethality, it became more known as the bodyguard style and boomed soon after. History did follow its moniker as Li Shuwen's other students went off to became other presidents' bodyguards (most notably Mao Zedong). Its lethality is praised since Li Shuwen himself did not take more than one hit to end a battle. If you're not familiar with him, he's the man who said: "I've never known what my second strike feels like because no one has ever survived my first."

PS: A high-level flex. He's also a 4* assassin Servant in FGO and had appeared in CCC as well.





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