Chapter 87 part 2: Interlude, Fear

[Sora!]

“Sora?!”

Thinking back now, I can somewhat understand why she did that.

She was always someone who couldn’t stand injustice or irrationality, someone who tried to save everyone deserving of salvation.

When she threw herself into that deep hole…the person here is not the head of the Tea Party or anything like that.

“Sora!!”

Reason, my reason flies away.

The refined and calm voice and way of speaking, maintained with consideration for manners and face, have long been abandoned.

I can’t help but abandon them.

I run, shouting a sound I don’t even know how many times I’ve made in my life.

“Wait, stop!”

I hear Saori-san’s voice from behind, the sound of footsteps rushing to grab me.

Reason tells me not to run, that it’s dangerous.

But what stopped me was neither Saori-san’s cry nor reason.

-KWAAAAAAANG!!!-

A flash, two streaks of light erupted from the bottom of the abyss-like hole she jumped into, broke through the ceiling, soared into the sky, and showed off their presence as light.

My vision lowers.

My vision, which moved according to my movements, stops.

Silence…no…an unexperienced unreality drains the strength from my legs, making me unable to distinguish sounds.

Why…?

I still don’t understand her.

Why can she disregard herself like this?

I still remember the steel pipe embedded in her wing during the Eden Treaty incident.

I remember your face, taking care of me even while standing up in that state.

How can you go that far?

Normally…normally, you can’t go that far…right?

You’re not the usual you, calm and prioritizing thought…what on earth blinds you like this?

Making you act first like this, not looking at yourself…and…not looking at the people who think of you…?

I can’t understand.

Because I don’t understand, fear…it’s terrifying beyond measure…even if it’s a connection, affection, and love that started from an unwanted form I created for you, isn’t it selfish…?

Every time I see you like that, I’m captured by the thought that I don’t know when you might disappear…I wish you would think just a little more about me…about us…even though it’s because you’re like that that this relationship formed…now…I wanted you to know that you are no longer just your own.

…

It’s useless…because you are like that, you chose the future of throwing yourself into such an abyss for a child you barely know, right here, right now….

[…Are you okay..?]

“…Yes…Sensei…I’ve shown an unsightly side…”

“…Well…I’m sorry to ruin the mood…but…we succeeded in seizing some authority over the Eridu Central Tower…the elevator on the floor Sensei is on is now under our control…it’s the elevator heading straight to the top floor where President Rio is…Sensei…we’re running out of time.”

Yes…that’s right…now is not the time for this…if it’s her…she’ll probably be okay…she’ll be fine…definitely…she entrusted me with assisting Sensei…

[Nagisa, thank you for everything so far. Go down to the ground with the Spec Ops children. I’m sorry…but Saori, could you help just a little longer?]

Ah…why…?

Why do you make me so miserable…?

Sensei…?

I had just managed to pull myself together…just managed to take on what she entrusted…

[Utaha?]

“Yes, Sensei.”

[You’ve worked hard so far. Go down to the 1st floor with the Engineering Department kids…it feels like I’m working you till the very end, but please take care of Nagisa.]

“Alright. It’s the limit for us indoor types anyway…”

[And Nagisa…a little…just a little more courage. That child isn’t one to disappear so easily, right?]

Ah…that’s right…I’m just scared right now.

Scared that she might leave me and disappear, and scared of seeing her in a precarious state.

And Sensei is telling me to move forward.

Even if not now, someday when such a moment comes, so that I won’t regret it….

…That’s right…that’s right…yes…at least, to not regret the present, I decide to follow his words.

“…Yes, Sensei…thank you for your consideration…”

[Okay…good luck….Chihiro? Can you prepare one more elevator heading to the 1st floor?]

“…Okay…Sensei, be careful until the very end…”

With those words, I turn my back on Sensei and step onto the elevator heading towards her, who might be at the end of that abyss.

.

..

…

…..

………

Episode 87 part 2:: How to Return to Daily Life (End)

Episode 87 part 2:: How to Return to □□ (End)

Episode 87 part 2:: How to □□□□ to □□ (End)

Episode 87 part 2: Demon Lord (End)

“…”

I don’t know how much time has passed since I followed President Rio.

…The thought that I should have at least said goodbye to everyone brings tears to my eyes…no…it seems coolant is flowing from the main camera.

But even that isn’t real.

Because, this place is…

“Princess…”

“…”

“Princess!!! Are you truly…thinking of abandoning your duty!”

This place is probably Aris’s inner mind…no…the storage space inside the memory…it must be the core space of that storage.

In front of Aris…in the exact same form as Aris…that which Aris…isolated here by Aris’s will…introduced itself as Key.

Key said it was like a demonic sword, a tool for Aris to destroy the world as the Demon Lord….Aris doesn’t want that.

Aris too…doesn’t know much about Aris’s interior.

But Aris…although Aris doesn’t know much about Aris’s interior, Aris knows the reason why Aris was created.

Demon Lord…Aris is the Demon Lord who destroys the world.

Someday…when Aris was still a Hero…no…Aris was never a Hero from the beginning.

Just when Aris still thought she was a Hero, one thing she heard flashes through her mind…outputs through the CPU.

Yumeka…Yumeka told…Aris to be the way she wants to be.

If she doesn’t know what form she wants to be, she should remain as Momoi…Midori…and Yuzu see Aris.

Yumeka is a child, but she spoke difficult words to me like Sensei.

The words were difficult, so I didn’t understand them, but…the first words remained deeply with Aris.

The form Aris wants to be….The form Aris wanted to be is a Hero.

The Hero who defeats the Demon Lord and brings peace to the world.

So Aris…wants to try acting like a Hero one last time.

Even if it’s the Demon Lord’s power…it’s possible to defeat the Demon Lord as a Hero.

“Prin…cess…”

“…Key…I’m sorry. Aris…doesn’t want to be the Demon Lord. I’m sorry to Key, who must have always been watching me from within me…and waiting for me. But…it shouldn’t be like that.”

“Princess…I’m sorry…Princess…and…if that is the Princess’s will…”

-Protocol Atrahasis Online-

“Here! We’ve arrived!”

“This is the top floor of the Eridu Central Tower….”

“…Aris-senpai…”

“According to the schematics, Aris should be somewhere there.”

Immediately after sending Nagisa and the Engineering Department kids back to the ground, I arrived here, the top floor of Eridu, with the Game Development Department, Yumeka, and Saori.

If Chihiro hadn’t managed to hack Eridu’s elevator at the very end, we wouldn’t have made it in time…but we finally set foot here.

“…! Who goes there!”

“Right. If it’s Aris, she’s here.”

-Click, clack-

-Clank!-

The sound of heels, heard once before, echoed in the control room on this top floor.

Simultaneously with the sound of heels, as if planned, Saori reacted and shouted, aiming her gun.

Naturally, the owner of the heel sounds was President Rio…she revealed herself before us.

The fact that that child revealed herself before us means she either has no more moves left or is confident she can stop us without fail…

“President..! You came this far, are you planning to fight more!?”

“No, the moment Toki fell, all the means I had disappeared. I admit it. It’s my defeat…so I’d appreciate it if you put down the gun…?”

[…Saori.]

“…Understood…Sensei…”

I don’t know if Rio’s words are true…no, that child’s face, close to expressionless but slightly trembling, says this is true.

Since Rio herself declared she has no cards left, I also instructed Saori to lower her gun.

Saori, though looking slightly displeased, seemed to trust me and quietly lowered her weapon.

…If it were the Saori from when we first met, it wouldn’t have been like this, but she seems to have softened a bit now…

“Really…you people came all the way here. To save that child who will become a threat to Kivotos in the future….overcoming everything that blocked the way.”

“Of course! We said we would from the beginning!”

“Aris, even if that child brings destruction to Kivotos?”

“Are you being spiteful because you lost?! Don’t talk about Aris like that!”

Spiteful…from Momoi’s perspective, that might feel like spite, but that’s not spite.

The child named Rio is an extreme rationalist…a child who wanted to protect the world but couldn’t choose the option of saving both, simply stating the truth she knows.

Therefore, I also state it.

[I don’t know what reasons or grounds Rio acted upon. But I can say one thing for sure.]

I state her mistake.

[Rio judged and concluded everything alone, without discussing it with others. And you forced what you believe is right onto others.]

I don’t know what that child is thinking.

But her method was definitely wrong somewhere.

No, her mistake might be right when viewed from a certain direction.

But her choice was twisted somewhere…and she ended up considering the last resort first.

I state it, hoping that she, who couldn’t choose the best and chose the second-worst, can choose the best.

“…Sensei, are you also saying I’m dogmatic? But…I…!! I….”

“…You weren’t wrong…but…how about looking around a little?”

The moment I was about to say one more thing, Yumeka, the small child, intercepts my words.

Ha, they say even children have something to teach, is that so?

Is it because she’s pure that she can say it?

“Sensei, I just confirmed Aris’s location…Sensei! Hurry! On one side of that room, there should be a facility where power from all over Eridu is concentrated! Something unusual is about to happen to Aris…Quick! Hurry!”

However, those words couldn’t continue to the end due to Chihiro’s urgent voice.

[Rio, let’s finish this conversation later!]

Yes, Aris comes first.

I don’t forget the initial purpose.

In a corner of the room, connected to numerous cables, lies Aris, the slightly eccentric child who loves games normally.

“Aris! We’re here!’

“Aris-chan!”

“Aris-chan…”

“Aris-senpai…”

Everyone stands before Aris and calls her name.

They call her name, hoping she will wake up smiling as always.

But that wish could not be granted.

-Tick-

“…Senpai…in the end…”

“Wh-wh-what’s happening.?!”

“L-look, the screen…!”

“This is…!!”

All the monitors in the central control room on the top floor, which managed all of Eridu’s facilities, turned pink, and a word seen somewhere…no, surely seen in that factory where Aris was first seen, appears on the screen.

“Now…suddenly…huh?! Communication is…stuck….”

Probably due to reasons related to that, the communication line with Chihiro is cut off.

“The entire Eridu system is hacked…no, this isn’t just hacking….the entire city is changing into <something>?”

“Yes, President Rio…I’m sorry. And at the same time…thank you.”

And that, absurdly…was something done by the child we were trying to save herself.

Aris raised her body while still connected to the cables.

“Aris! You woke up! Let’s go back! Okay?”

It was certainly a happy event, something we couldn’t have wished for more, but it didn’t flow as a good thing for us.

“Momoi, I’m sorry…I don’t think that’s possible…”

“What?! What does that mean!?”

Sadly, Aris seems to have no intention of overturning the sentence she passed on herself.

“Aris is…the Demon Lord. But at the same time, I want to be a Hero.”

“…Senpai…!”

Because Aris wanted to be a Hero herself, she could be endlessly cruel to the entity called the Demon Lord.

But the Hero, having realized she herself is the Demon Lord, made a cruel choice to remain a Hero.

“That’s not it…Senpai…!”

“Aris-chan…no! Aris-chan is…not something like a Demon Lord…”

“But Yumeka said so. In the very end, stay as the form you want to be. Aris wants to be a Hero! I want to save the world!”

The Hero points her sword at the Demon Lord.

“So…Yumeka…I’m sorry…and thank you…thank you for letting Aris remain a Hero…”

“….Effective immediately, Protocol Atrahasis available resource area expanded. Resource name: Fortress City Eridu’s total available resources confirmed at 10,000 exabytes of data. Princess…I’m sorry…”

A voice similar to Aris’s flows through the broadcasts inside the fortress city.

I don’t know what it is…but it clearly harbored apologetic feelings towards Aris.

“Atrahasis?!”

“President Rio…President Rio said Aris wasn’t a Hero. But President Rio…thank you. In the end, thanks to President Rio, Aris obtained the sword to remain a Hero.”

“…It ended up like this after all, Rio…”

[Himari?! Eimi?!]

Himari and Eimi slowly entered the central control room and opened their mouths.

“Sensei, you’ve worked hard so far. Normally, I’d brew some tea and chat, but…I have something left to say to that dogmatic Big Sister, and the situation is what it is, so let’s postpone it.”

Himari, keeping silent about where she had been until now, brings her wheelchair in front of Rio and starts speaking while facing her.

“Yes, Rio. You must have built this fortress city Eridu out of concern that destruction would befall Kivotos…it’s laughable. Yes, the sword you diligently prepared ultimately couldn’t reach the princess of the nameless gods you speak of.”

“That can’t be…that…can’t be, my calculations…”

The words flowing from Himari’s mouth were not pleasant, and they were words that would lead to a great sense of loss for a child like Rio.

“Well…still, it seems to be going according to your wishes. Your Eridu is ultimately being used as a suicide tool by a cute junior.”

[What!?]

However, something more important, shocking words followed from Himari’s mouth.

“Ah, Sensei, but don’t worry. Probably…yes, I thought it would turn out like this. You can trust the words of me, the super genius frail beauty, okay?”

[Ha…I see…]

Normally, I would have asked how I could not worry, and I might have asked Himari, who could say such things even in this situation, if she had some plan.

But all worry was unnecessary.

Because the one standing there was Aris, not a Demon Lord like the princess of the nameless gods…

“That’s not it! Aris-senpai!”

“…?! Yumeka…?”

The child with a beautiful voice, unimaginable for a child, starts speaking, shouting as if throwing a tantrum.

“How on earth did you interpret my words?! Aris-senpai?!”

It was a statement that wouldn’t likely come from a child’s mouth, yet paradoxically, it felt like something only a child could say.

“I told you Aris-senpai could just be what she wants to be?! Why is Aris-senpai the Demon Lord in the first place?!”

I’ve seen that child many times, but this is the first time I’ve heard such an agitated voice.

No, it’s the first time for me to see such a young child convey her true feelings with such an agitated voice.

“So what if senpai isn’t a Hero?! If you’re not a Hero, can’t you just become one?! A Hero is a chosen being? If you’re not chosen, can’t you become a Hero?!”

She spouts sophistry.

But that sophistry is quite pleasing, more pleasing than the answer to the problem.

“No! Isn’t it actually more amazing because you weren’t chosen?! So throw away that outdated chuunibyou stuff about senpai being a Demon Lord and go humble the goddess who didn’t choose senpai as a Hero!!!”

“Yumeka…please stop…Aris cannot go back…If Aris stays by your side…everyone will be hurt just as much.”

But Aris doesn’t turn back just with such sophistry.

Yes, the Hero doesn’t turn back with “only” such sophistry.

“The Demon Lord who will lead Kivotos to destruction…rather than having precious people…suffer and get hurt….it’s right for Aris to disappear like this.”

“Tales Saga Chronicle 2…! The game we made together received a special award!!!”

“That’s right, senpai! I had a lot of fun playing that?! I’ll be waiting for part 3?! You won’t say there’s no part 3 like some game development company that put a control valve running in the middle of a pipe as their company name, right?!”

That’s right, the Hero doesn’t turn back with sophistry alone.

But a Hero is someone who travels with companions, grows, and endlessly moves forward.

That footprint, the Hero’s companion, makes the Hero look back just once, just once.

“See! We have fans too! The destruction of Kivotos? What are you talking about?”

Just once is enough.

Just make her look back once.

Because…

“Everyone gets hurt just because Aris is here? Who says such ridiculous things?! Because we met Aris…because we could meet Aris, we made a game! We received an award at the Millennium Prize and saved our club!”

“Yeah.”

“….Yeah!”

“Momoi…?”

“Being able to save the club. Making games, enjoying them together, playing!

Being able to become friends who play games together with that scary Neru-senpai! Everything! It’s because Aris was here!

But saying Aris is a Demon Lord, that she was born that way. That she has to disappear because of it. Where is such a thing! That’s absolutely unacceptable!”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“I won’t…let you…disappear….”

“Why, why, is, it? Everyone…why….? Aris is the Demon Lord…everyone got hurt because of Aris…why, everyone….doesn’t fear Aris….doesn’t hate Aris….like that….”

“Because Aris-chan is…our companion…!”

“A long time ago….Aris-chan told us, right? Final Fantasia, Dragon Test, Tales of Fate, Dragon Force, Hero Legend, Eyes Eternal….and Tales Saga Chronicle…in any of those games, the protagonists…”

“Never gave up on their companions…”

“Even if Aris is the Demon Lord, that doesn’t matter…! That’s just a simple job!”

“Yes! That’s right! Originally, who you are is something you decide for yourself, right?! Throw away that trashy job like Demon Lord and change careers!

And senpai, do you know? Nowadays, the unchosen Hero saving the world sells better?!”

“Aris is….the Demon Lord….”

Because the Hero, once they look back…no, because they looked back once, when they look forward again, they can continue straight down that path.

“Even so…can Aris…really do that…? Can I continue the adventure…with everyone…continue the quest…? Even this Aris…? Really…?”

“Yes…! Of course!”

“If that’s the case….Aris too! Wants to become a Hero…! With everyone…! With Momoi and Midori, Yuzu. And continue the adventure with Sensei!

Meet helpers like Yumeka along the way…and…more…more! See the world! And in the end…I want to humble the goddess who didn’t choose Aris!!”

Because if she’s a Hero, she’ll continue straight down that path.

“If Aris, the Demon Lord, is allowed to do that!!”

“Yeah! If Aris wants to do it, that’s enough!”

“Even a Demon Lord can become a Hero.”

“What! The Demon Lord turning out to be the Hero and saving the world…isn’t that actually cool!”

“…Even if…even if it’s not great…we can make it cool with our next work….”

“The four gathered here can do anything they want…!”

“Can make anything…!”

-<Because we are the Game Development Department!>-

“Then Aris wants to become a Hero…before that…Momoi! I’ll correct you!”

“Eh?!”

The Demon Lord is no longer the Demon Lord.

She is a Hero.

Though she wasn’t chosen by the goddess and awarded the Sword of Light, she is a Hero.

She has splendidly defeated the Demon Lord within herself and shed that skin to become a Hero.

“The Game Development Department isn’t four members…it’s six! Sensei and Yumeka are also part of the Game Development Department!”

“Eh?! But Sensei is Sensei, and Yumeka is still in elementary school?!”

“Agh! Originally, clichés are meant to be broken! A helper joining as a companion is a cliché!”

“You broke a cliché, but it’s a cliché!?”

Her words are a mess, but that is Aris.

[Ha, yes. You decide who you want to be! Aris!]

“And there’s something I have to do!”

“Senpai, perhaps…?”

“Aris wasn’t awarded the Sword of Light by the goddess…so…even if it’s not the Sword of Light! I need a sword to defeat the Demon Lord!”

Light gathers at Aris’s fingertips.

The numerous machines and facilities of the Central Tower disassemble themselves in Aris’s hands and reassemble themselves.

They redefine their own form.

The redefined form was, naturally, quite familiar.

“This is! The Sword of Light…no! The <Hero’s Sword: Crucible> that defeats the Demon Lord and its minions!”

The Sword of Light she always carried blooms in Aris’s hand.

…Isn’t that an adult game?

“The current Aris is a physical attribute sword Hero!!!!”

The Hero’s Sword emitted light…and the Demon Lord’s seat crumbled.

The cables attached to Aris are all severed by the Hero’s Sword and disappear, evaporating without a trace.

The screens that shone pink all return to their original blue light, displaying CCTV footage or various data.

….

….

….

The Hero has returned.

Episode 87 part 2: Hero (End)