Aura: Koga Maryuin’s Final Battle

Our plan of escape from the second floor immediately collapsed.
“That’s right, the classrooms are kept… locked.”
We couldn’t enter any classroom, they were all firmly locked shit. While we took a look at the second-floor toilets as well, for some reason, the windows were a different style from the first floor and not a size any human could pass through.
“They took bloody safety measures…!”
Consideration for the sensitive teen who might try jumping out a secluded window. If they were going to kill themselves, they might as well use the roof or a classroom, and I’m pretty sure a teenager would avoid the bathroom, and this really was such a boardroom-decided motion.
“What now, witch?”
There wasn’t any time. The guard from the first-floor bathroom would be on our tail in no time. Either run to the third floor, or get to the other side of the second.
“Hey! Are you these so-called thieves!”
The option of going down the corridor disappeared. From a distant classroom, a guard different from the one who ate the smoke bomb jumped out. Our encounter rate was set too high.
“It’s a different guard! Kinda seems even higher leveled than the previous one! When we still have that monster to worry about!”
“… Unlocked.” The witch coldly pointed out.
“Huh?”
she pointed at the classroom the guard had exited.
“We can enter that classroom. Escape is possible.”
Well, I’m sure it was a possibility, but… a guard, an entity embodying the very notion of suspension was coming from precisely that direction.
“The Researcher requests Satou Ichirou’s assistance.”
The witch spread out her two hands like folding fans. Appearing like a parlor trick in the gaps between her fingers, another eight of those smoke bombs from before. I accepted a handful, four of them. So she wanted my help. She even handed me a lighter.
“Ignite,” as ordered, I set fire to the fuses. We simultaneously threw them toward the guard running at us. Eight orbs’ worth of smoke explosively filled the corridor. There were primary colored smokes of red, blue, and yellow mixed in, completely cutting off my field of vision. The form of the guard coiled by smoke left my vision.
Beep, the mechanical staff emitted an electronic noise.
“Subject Guardian rendered powerless. Commence movement.”
“G-got it.”
In a dash, we plunged towards the guard… meaning into the smoke.
None of this was sane by any measure. But with a sermon from some pseudo-intelligence, that nauseous prismatic cloud, an information monster, a guardian, and the witch in blue, my rationality had taken off somewhere. After we’d made it past the smoke, there was no indication of the guard chasing us. It seems he didn’t even notice us passing by his sides.
Upon entering the classroom, the witch immediately threw the window open.
“Escape route secured. All hands promptly prepare for descent.”
All hands, she said, despite there being only me.
“Hey, don’t you think this height is pushing it?”
The witch nonchalantly pulled a rope ladder from the folds of her robe. I was honestly impressed.
“So that’s a fourth-dimensional robe you’ve got on. It’s got everything in it.”
Pulling the hood of her rove over her eyes, she gave a small nod.
“… Right.”
I climbed down first. It was the first time I had ever used a rope ladder, and the considerable sway frightened me, but I somehow managed to plant my feet on the ground. The witch seemed more accustomed, descending with far more certainty.
“Withdraw.”
“What about the ladder?”
“That is a consumable ration of this realm, and will be abandoned as such.”
Well, the guard already knew someone was there.
The two of us left the grounds, chose a rarely used road, and quickly sped off.
“Ichirou, this way.”
Yanked into the darkness, on the grounds of presumably a tenement building under construction, she forcefully crammed our two bodies in the shadows of the carelessly piled materials.
“Lay low here until the guardian retreats.”
“Y-yeah…”
It was a narrow space. I would be spotted standing, so my knees were bent, but we were altogether stuck together. One of my knees entered the gap between the witch’s two legs, while one of hers had torn into the gap between mine. We were pushed fast together, hip to knee joint.
Awkward.
The witch’s head was conveyed across my thin undershirt. I couldn’t think properly in regards to where that was touching.
“S-sorry.”
“Instigation of apology unknown.”
“Well…”
A silence descended. I could feel a minute go by as an hour. The soft and warm contours pushed against me. The sweet fragrance wafting from her hair made it so blatant she was of the opposite sex I couldn’t ignore it. A girl was here. I was pressed against a girl. Press. Girl. Girl. Press. My own lack of experience points was hammered in.
It was impossible to see the state of the school from where we were. It seemed the sounds were our only way to measure the changes. And within that silent moment, my attention couldn’t help but rift towards the witch.
“Come to think of it,” I hadn’t checked one fundamental thing. “What’s your name?”
“Researcher.”
“Is that a name? Kinda sounds like a code name.”
“More precisely, an individual belonging to the class of ‘Researcher’. A carbon-based active body affiliated with the ‘Central Assembly’.”
“Carbon-based…? Doesn’t that just mean human?”
“Only the structure is the same, The Researcher is not a human of this realm. While each unit is numbered for the sake of distinction and that serves as an individual designation, that designation is highly classified and improper to disclose.”
“So a human from another world.”
My heart was already racing, I was at the edge of my seat.
“The Researcher was dispatched to this world to recover the ‘Dragon Terminal’.”
“Dragon Terminal!” The irrational sensor still nesting within me went off like craze. “What’s that?”
“There are records that dragons once existed in this world as well. However, in the present era, they are largely believed to be extinct.”
“Are you talking about dinosaurs?”
“Different from so-called birds and reptiles, it refers to a general higher-dimensional being boasting intelligence. Wandering from dimension to dimension, they can adapt to any environment, but in rare instance one settles and develops a resistance to a certain plane, their existence is assimilated and affixed in the form of matter. Within a material dragon dwells near infinite energy and highly condensed logic information; they can be used as a multipurpose device to output stable results given special inputs.”
“So in short, it’s some crazy computational device.”
“That is an exceedingly rudimentary understanding, but as an irrational existence of the phenomenal realm, it is an adequate way to conceptualize it.”
“You’re searching for a dragon’s corpse.”
“The notion of a corpse is inadequate. The ability to develop resistance is by no means a rare quality of a carbon-based active body. Even in the phenomenal realm, there are those who possess forms and functions to endure the most extreme of environments for extended durations and reproduce once the environment has improved. Therefore, in this instance, it should be expressed that its activity level has reached a dormant state and—”
“Yeah, got it, fine, I get it. I used the wrong term, cut me some slack here.”
“It is already known that the thought patterns of residents of the phenomenal realm are ruled by illogical trend. It is untrue that the researcher raised any objection to Ichirou’s inappropriate understanding, an explanation was merely offered upon sensing the necessity to prevent a conversation from moving forward under false pretenses.”
“Yeah, fine, it’s alright. Don’t worry about it. It’s just a figure of speech.”
I always found myself in a fluster when faced with those large, almost circular eyes.
“How about you just pick out all the important stuff, and describe it vaguely so even a resident of the phenomenal realm can understand?”
“Understood. Henceforth, the general gist of the main topics shall be extracted and the conversation will be attempted with terminology appropriate for a phenomenal being.”
“Well thanks, I guess.”
Just what sort of girl did I run into, anyway?
“Forget all that, what am I supposed to call you? It would be nice if you had some nickname.”
“A carbon-based active body affiliated with the ‘Central Assembly’ does not require a pet name.”
“But I require one. Do you have anything in mind?”
The witch stared at me.
“… Nothing The Researcher lacks the ability of extraction. It is impossible to self-supply a pet name.”
“Then I’ll give you one.”
Let’s see. She’s a solemn mage, so… Soma? Yeah, how about Soma? And when it comes to Soma, there’s that famous Vedic ritual elixir—
“Wait, that reeks of pretentious!”
“What’s wrong, Ichirou? Have your cognitive functions been damaged?”
“No, I just reaffirmed how my very existence reeked of pretentiousness…”
The witch touched her nose to my neck.
“It has been determined that Ichirou does not smell.”
“……”
I was frozen solid for around three seconds.
“I-I don’t mean I actually smell, I mean, there’s this psychological self-loathing that…”
“The Researcher is unable to comprehend such vague philosophical notions.”
I found the notion of sniffing the member of the opposite sex you were stuck to to be far more incomprehensible.
“It’s just a pet name, but why not keep it simple and go with Risa? Risa the Researcher.”
I figured something terrible would happen if I thought too hard about it, so I decided to bring a conclusion from somewhere close. It was a name, for what it’s worth. Shortened form of Marissa.
“It does not matter. The only one who will use the name is Ichirou.”
“Sounds lonely if you put it like that… but, well, Risa it is.”
“Understood. Risa has been registered as a simple identification name.”
A while of silence continued after that. My bottom was finally starting to hurt when the witch abruptly stood to her feet.
“… Eep!”
With an unexpectedly cute yelp, she tripped and fell over me. It appeared something had caught the edge of her outfit.
“Are you okay? You can put your hands on my shoulders.”
“… Proposal accepted.”
With both hands firmly on my shoulders, Risa leaned her weight onto me. With that alone, I was led to feel just a little happy. I sure am simple, aren’t I.
“We should get moving. Disable your suspension mode.”
“Do I look like I have one…”
The area was quiet. There wasn’t any particular clamor from the school’s direction.
An intruder was spotted, and a smoke bomb was even thrown. It must have made for considerable turmoil. And yet, it had sunk back to an uncanny level of silence.
The two of us arbitrarily walked out onto the road.
“What are we going to do now?”
“We are going to part ways.”
“Huh? But wasn’t I… the possessor of something or another?”
“In order to avoid the lowering of the mission’s efficiency by intervention, the holder of plenipotentiary power did nothing more than temporarily place the one known as Satou Ichirou under jurisdiction.”
“Is that how it works?”
“That necessity has disappeared. Ichirou will now return to his life in the phenomenal realm.”
“… I see.”
It would be a lie to say I didn’t feel disappointed. Having my mood forcibly dampened was harsh. Risa turned her back upon informing me of our parting. The moment I saw that small back, I thought I had to protect her.
“Ah, I’ll help out.”
Those receding feet stopped.
“I have some sort of power, don’t I? That means I should be of use somewhere.”
“You have witnessed the risk that comes with searching for dragon terminals. That decision is exceedingly ill-advised.”
“I know that… but I,” The feelings I’d sealed away raised some alarm bells. “I’m not satisfied with what you called my life in the phenomenal realm.”
“There is no need for acceptance in mere existence.”
“Or you could call it reality.”
“Reality. The term that opposes fiction. Ichirou, do you long for fiction and fantasy?”
The knife of words stabbed into my chest. Not that she had such intent.
“T-that’s not all it is. The way I see it, reality’s got to be bigger than the world I know. That’s why I wasn’t so flustered when I saw someone like you. I could accept it.”
“Accept. Does Ichirou accept The Researcher?”
“That’s right. I didn’t reject you, did I? You helped me out and told me I had power, and, and then…”
I wanted to raise any reason I could. Yet not enough came out to make a pile. All I could do was mouth the most pathetic reason of all.
“… If there’s a mystery out there, I want to see it. If there’s an extraordinary out there that’ll get my heart racing… I want to see it.”
The witch thought behind her emotionless eyes.
“Is that not enough?”
Risa silently turned; her sleeves flapping, she made off in a hurry.
I… wasn’t even able to chase her. Fastened firmly to the spit, after watching the blue silhouette vanish from my field of view, I was assailed by an overly bloated despondence. As if I was too late, I had gone on too long not using my power… my own patheticness remained, turning to a lingering unease.
“… Tsk.”
I stuffed both hands into my jacket pocket. My left hand came against something hard.
When I pulled it out, I found the medal Risa was wearing. The chain had been broken.
Right, thinking back, at the construction material sight, Risa had collapsed when something got caught up.
On closer inspection, I could see the frayed thread of one of my jacket buttons, on the verge of coming off. So the chain had caught on the button. Did it fall in back then? I stared at the medal on my palm.
In the center of numerous concentric circles, a rosebud had been inlaid in a different material.
What did she call it again? Right, it was the plenipotentiary power holder.
A necessity for a witch. An item she should never lose. A valuable she would have no choice but to come back for. Strangely enough, my heart was jumping for joy.
The world wasn’t some boring blur. Karaoke, and fashionable clothes, and class hierarchies weren’t everything. Unknown to the adults, a miracle the kids were on the verge of forgetting definitely existed. No matter how I denied it, the medal silently handed down judgment. That’s right. Nessy wasn’t some cheap setup. Skyfish aren’t some trick of the light. The Mongolian death worm (this season’s cryptid) is still up and kicking somewhere in the Gobi. And more than anything—witches really exist.
Clenching the medal in my hand, I desperately stifled my own delight.