Chapter 20: A Provisional Curtain Call (Part 1)

Trinity Main Campus.

Inside a room washed in moonlight streaming through the windows, Kirifuji Nagisa quietly enjoyed her tea. There was no one else present—save for the guard standing at her side.

"Hmm…?"

Just then, two light knocks sounded at the door.

"...If this is about tea, I’ve already had enough."

She assumed it was another member of the guard stationed outside. However, there was no response.

Instead, the door slowly opened—and a voice she recognized as belonging to one of her guards reached her ears.

"...How pitiful. You can’t sleep, can you?"

—No. Not that voice.

It belonged to someone else entirely.

"That’s only natural. With the Justice Realization Committee so close by… anyone would feel uneasy, wouldn’t they, Nagisa-san?"

"U–Urawa Hanako-san…!? Why are you here…!?"

Standing beyond the doorway was Urawa Hanako—the very student Nagisa herself had identified as a destabilizing element and sent to the Make-Up Work Club. She was supposed to be confined to the annex, unable to leave.

"How did I find this safe house, you ask? Well, of course—it’s because I know everything. All eighty-seven safe houses, even the rotation schedule… fufu♡"

"W–What…!?"

"Don’t move."

As Hanako stepped into the room, her footsteps clicking softly against the floor, Nagisa tried to speak—both to Hanako and to the other presence she had just noticed: Shirasu Azusa, aiming a gun directly at her.

The moment they violated the Tea Party’s orders and appeared in the main building, Nagisa understood that they were traitors.

And the fact that both of them stood before her meant something else as well.

The guards outside had already been neutralized. Almost none of her protection remained.

Even so, Nagisa retained a measure of composure.

Because behind her stood a joker—a trump card capable of overturning even the most unfavorable situation.

That was why she chose to draw out as much information as possible.

"So the 'traitors' aren’t just one person, but two…!?"

"...Fufu, what a simple way of thinking♡ Azusa-chan and I are nothing more than pawns. There’s another commander giving the orders."

"...!!"

The revelation sent a chill through her. Two traitors. Combat skills refined enough to effortlessly eliminate guards fully aware of their positions. Everything exceeded her expectations.

Which was precisely why she decided that further dialogue was dangerous.

Before they could act again, she had to deal with them—and extract information later.

"...Komori-san. Please capture them."

And so, she played her trump card.

—All while forcing herself not to think about why neither of them had shown even the slightest reaction to the guard standing behind her.

A cold sensation pressed against the back of her head.

Click.

A sound came from behind.

"...What… do you think you’re doing…?"

The composure she had been clinging to evaporated in an instant.

『…No, nothing in particular. Just thinking—two traitors, huh? That’s a remarkably simple conclusion.』

A red light gazed down at her.

"...Are you planning to betray me? A mercenary’s trust is—"

『"A mercenary’s lifeline is trust," right?』

"—!"

『But siding with whoever is most convenient is also what it means to be a mercenary. And the reason you kept me bound to your side as a guard—was because you couldn’t fully trust me either. Isn’t that right, Kirifuji Nagisa?』

A dry laugh, laced with static, drifted down from above.

『Isn’t this good news? Your prediction was spot-on.』

"……"

Her vision darkened.

Checkmate.

With her trump card gone, there was nothing left she could do.

In that moment, only one question remained.

Urawa Hanako, who knew everything about Trinity. Shirasu Azusa, whose combat ability rendered guards meaningless. And the “commander” capable of recruiting a famed mercenary known as the “Cleaner.”

Just who was that person?

"Before we get to that, Nagisa-san… was it really necessary to go this far?"

She asked quietly.

To protect the Eden Treaty—the crucial agreement linking Gehenna and Trinity. To flush out a potential spy capable of overturning everything. Even so, she had dragged Schale’s Sensei into it. Took the innocent Koharu hostage merely to restrain the Justice Task Force. Even suspected Hifumi, someone she had once been close to—placing her in the Make-Up Work Club and attempting to force her expulsion.

She understood it herself.

She knew how deeply this had wounded them.

"...But I don’t regret it."

She chose her words carefully.

Everything had been for the greater cause. As a friend, she had done things she never should have. But even so, she believed she had only done what was necessary—as Kirifuji Nagisa of the Tea Party.

She stated it plainly.

"...Fufu♡"

"Then, once again, I’ll pass along a message from our commander to you, Nagisa-san."

Smiling as Nagisa glared at her with sharp eyes, Hanako spoke—like farewell words. Like a final move delivered at checkmate.

"'Ahaha… um, it was fairly enjoyable, you know. Playing friends with you, Lady Nagisa.' …That’s what they said♡"

"…………Eh… no, that can’t be…"

The worst possible suspicion flashed through her mind.

The teacup slipped from her hand and shattered against the floor. The muzzle flash from the gun aimed at her was the last thing she saw before her consciousness sank into darkness.

『K–kuh… ahahahahaha!!』

How utterly ridiculous.

Magnificent.

H–hey there, everyone! It’s me.

Did you hear that idiot’s voice? Did you see that face twisted in despair!? Ahhaa—perfect! That alone makes it worth siding with them! Nice one, Urawa Hanako! And serve you right, Kirifuji Nagisaaa!!! This is what you get for treating me like garbage all this time!!

『C–calm down, Komori-chan…』

『Hahaha… whew. It’s fine, Sensei. I’m satisfied now.』

Anyway. As villainous as I might sound, the actual mission is to protect Kirifuji Nagisa from the Arius strike team that should be arriving soon. Transporting the unconscious Nagisa to a safe location is being handled by Sensei and Hifumi’s group. While they do that, Azusa and I will wipe out the entire unit ourselves.

『You good?』

『Of course. Who do you think I am? If you’re worried about anyone, worry about Azusa.』

『Azusa’s already in position… looks like she’s started.』

『Yeah. I can hear gunfire.』

Dust rose from one corner of the school building.

『…Sensei? I can go all out, right?』

『Just don’t kill them.』

『Roger.』

With a final click, the communicator fell silent. I slipped it into my coat.

Condition: perfect. Unit: no issues.

Even the display seemed to be screaming at me to let loose already.

『Target acquired.』

Below me, I spotted a small squad armed with guns and wearing gas masks. The victory condition was simple: suppress the enemy unit.

The only restriction given—

"Don’t kill them."

That was it.

『Commencing operation.』

—Ahh, what an easy job.

Spent shell casings clattered against the ground.

"Hah…! Hah…!"

Echoing through the darkness were hurried footsteps and ragged breathing. Even though the halos above her fallen comrades had long since vanished, the halo still shining above her own head must have felt like a cruel curse.

"...Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Where… where is she!?"

Her eyes darted wildly behind the glass of her gas mask.

The comrades who should have been beside her lay scattered across the floor, their halos—the proof of consciousness—long since darkened and faded.

Poor thing.

She had come here expecting to hunt a lone sheep as part of a pack. Believed herself to be a wolf.

Now, she was nothing more than a solitary sheep, waiting to be slaughtered.

You could say the roles had reversed.

…No—actually, that’s wrong.

From the very beginning, nothing had ever been reversed.

I was the hunter.

You were simply foolish sheep, lured in by bait.

"...! There—!"

And so, all I had to do was continue playing my role—

"Shell casing—damn—!"

—nothing more.

『Suppression complete.』

Something sliced through the air. A dull thud echoed down the hallway, followed by crackling arcs of electricity snapping and flashing.

Once I confirmed the halo above my target had vanished and they had completely lost consciousness, I slid the suppression baton—equipped with stun-gun functionality—back into my coat.

They say the gun is mightier than the sword, but that depends on the situation. In cramped, dark indoor spaces like this, this tool is far more practical.

Having options is always good. It lets you choose tactics suited to the situation. Halos are the same. Sure, they can block bullets—but they shine far too brightly. In places like this, they’re impossible to miss.

And as you can tell from this baton—or from the pain of smashing your little toe into the corner of a dresser—there are plenty of drawbacks too. Like how they sometimes fail to trigger unless there’s a direct threat to life.

"Kill count is… roughly two squads."

I glanced at the log displayed at the edge of the screen.

The units I had managed to draw in and neutralize consisted of one squad outside, and this one that chased me indoors. It seemed the two squads that arrived first had been left to someone else…

"...Well, I guess that’s fine…?"

I stared in the direction where gunfire and explosions were still echoing. Sensei—the one who had beaten me—was over there. Expecting them to lose now would probably be more unreasonable than anything else.

"Alright then… time to regroup—!"

The moment the words left my mouth, an alarm blared. The display flooded with red dots indicating hostile forces—and among them, a single red circle closing in at an abnormal speed.

"—!? You’ve got to be kidding…!"

By the time I noticed and reached for the controls, it was already too late.

My vision shook violently as the scenery blurred and twisted. The sub-monitor began flashing damage readouts that were outright impossible.

【Benedictus System damaged. Load exceeds projections. Self-repair system activated. Reboot in 32 seconds—】

Even the Mystic Replication System I had deployed on instinct was in this state. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of blow it would take to cause this much damage.

When my vision finally stabilized, I understood what had happened.

I had been blasted through multiple walls and forcibly relocated to another area.

And peering through the hole I had smashed through—

—the true identity of the assault team.

"...Ha… haha… this is a pretty cruel joke…"

My grip on the controller tightened unconsciously.

"...At least let me heal before the boss fight…"

I understood then.

I had entered the final battle.

"D–Did we win…?"

"All enemies incapacitated."

The gymnasium lay deep in the dead of night. Bullet holes riddled the walls, and Arius students were scattered across the floor as Sensei and the others stood among them.

With Azusa’s diversion, Hifumi’s ambush, and Sensei’s command, they had successfully repelled the Arius assault force.

According to the Arius students lying there, a separate unit should be arriving soon. However, the Justice Task Force—alerted by the commotion—would also be rushing to the scene.

That knowledge gave them something called hope.

If they could hold out just a little longer, victory would be theirs.

Perhaps it was the afterglow of triumph.

Or perhaps—

—it was complacency.

"!?"

What shattered it was a thunderous crash. A massive hole tore open beside the gymnasium, and something burst inside—

『Damn it… frontal combat really isn’t my specialty…!』

"Komori-chan!?"

Standing there was the battered figure of the Cleaner.

『…Sensei. So you’re done over there already.』

"Are you okay!?"

『Yeah. I’m fine, but… ah, sorry. I took out about two full squads, plus roughly another platoon’s worth… but for all the big talk I made, I still couldn’t finish the job.』

Beyond the hole she was glaring through, Sensei followed her gaze—and at that moment, numerous silhouettes began to emerge.

"Don’t tell me… Arius reinforcements!?"

"That many!?"

A group of Arius students wearing gas masks appeared, forming ranks. Their numbers—

"...That’s a lot. Battalion scale. Probably close to half of Arius…"

…or so it seemed.

"The Justice Task Force still isn’t moving…?"

"That can’t be helped."

"……!"

At Hanako’s question, the one who answered stepped out from among the crowd.

"Because these people are about to become Trinity’s official armed force."

Pink hair. The distinctive uniform of the Tea Party. The angelic figure holding a gun was—

"Mika…?"

It was her.

Misono Mika.

"Hey, long time no see, Sensei. I’m happy to see you again."

She calmly explained that the Justice Task Force would not move. Any other potential interference—any group that might have come to their aid—had also been rendered unable to act through the Tea Party’s authority.

Then, without hesitation, she declared herself the mastermind behind the entire incident.

"Mika… why…?"

"Hm? You want to know? If you ask me like that, Sensei, I can’t refuse."

—Because I hate Gehenna.

She said it with genuine delight, as though it were the truest feeling in her heart.

Because she hated Gehenna. Because she despised it from the depths of her soul. Because she could never accept something as absurd as the Eden Treaty.

That was why Arius—once Trinity’s kin, and now harboring hatred for Gehenna even purer than that of current Trinity students—could become her comrades.

『Haha… I heard that earlier too, but that’s not a joke I can laugh at.』

"That’s because I’m not joking, Komori-chan."

…Simply because she hated Gehenna, she intended to erase Nagisa, her fellow Tea Party member. Frame Azusa as the attacker—the scapegoat. Seize control of the Tea Party’s authority. Establish a new Trinity–Arius alliance.

And in the end—

Total war.

『…I’ll admit, as a scenario it sounds disturbingly plausible, but don’t you think the motive is a bit thin? Even fictional villains usually have something more substantial than that.』

Perhaps to buy time, Komori forced herself upright and taunted Mika.

But the response she received was cold—utterly exclusionary.

"...I thought you of all people would understand, Komori-chan."

『…Huh?』

Komori’s raw, confused voice leaked through the mic.

"Because you’re a victim of Gehenna too, Komori-chan."

Poor Komori-chan.

"You were bullied by Gehenna students until you couldn’t even come to school anymore. And now those same Gehenna students are threatening you—forcing you to do dangerous, cruel work as a 'Cleaner,' right? As a fellow Trinity student, I can’t just ignore that."

『Eh—no, that’s not—』

"It’s okay, Komori-chan. There are no Gehenna people here. You can tell the truth. Was it Convenience Store 69? Those people with the stu-pid, tack-y name? They bully you, don’t they? Forcing you to do shady jobs you don’t want to do, making you earn money against your will. I know all about it. That’s why, if you’d just ask me for help, I would—"

『………Na—』

"—Eh?"

『You delusional, bird-brained bitch…! Anyone who dares insult Aru-sama and the others—no matter who they are—will be eliminated…!!』

"Komori-chan…!?"

『Sensei…! Prepare for combat! I’ll smash that woman myself…!』

—And so, the battle began.