[794] Beta Fish (4)
"It's over. A total disaster."
Palmus clutched his head as Maya showed no sign of moving even though the intro was almost finished.
'Has she been swallowed by nerves?'
Going suddenly blank—white mind, no thoughts—that was common for newcomers.
When it was almost time for Maya to sing, Palmus squeezed his eyes shut, unable to face what was happening.
"Like a sudden shower…"
A clear voice, like dawn breaking.
"Huh?"
Palmus opened his eyes as a powerful drumbeat exploded and the song began.
"Light pours down from the sky!"
Her explosive vocals cut through every instrument, bursting out as if to push the audience back.
'She's perfectly on the beat. Even better than rehearsal.'
Maya's voice, already in the rhythm, sounded truer than anything he'd heard before.
'I'm not afraid.'
There can be no mistakes in sincerity.
'I practiced countless times.'
He could think of nothing, but the rhythm, the melody, the timing of the song flowed through his subconscious.
"Like an unexpected downpour!"
As his ears opened and the world snapped into focus, Shirone smiled exactly like the lyric described.
"An irresistible beam of light descends!"
You can't precisely define how sincerity changes technique, but the audience could feel it.
"That singer can really sing."
"Right? The other invited singers are well-known, but even this rookie's level is high."
At the crowd's praise, Shirone felt a twitch at her mouth.
'That person is my classmate.'
She thought she should watch from afar until Maya rose even higher.
"She's the best! Maya!"
It was a dazzling debut.
* * *
A group was moving fast about fourteen kilometers from the arena.
Some flew low on wind power, some ran on sheer muscle, some used machines.
Their methods varied, but their arrow-like speed was nearly equal.
"Mortasinger, we'll reach the arena soon."
They spoke in the tongue of Heaven.
"Good. Wait two kilometers out."
A woman at the center, her face covered with a cloth painted with a black cube, spoke.
"Pretty things all have to be killed."
Mortasinger—ranked tenth in the Council of Ten—was ten thousand forty-eight years old.
"This won't be easy. The Miss World pageant is a major Arachne operation."
"It's just a provincial event. Not our concern—we're not worried about the citizens of Heaven."
Ra Enemi had dragged the Council of Ten and the Everliving community in to erect an altar.
They said Reset made it easy to slip into the human world, but Ra's final choice had been Nane.
'Not an ounce of responsibility in any of them.'
Beron and Baknyeo were dead; Shura had become Nane's disciple and was learning the ascetic path, rumor said.
'I should have brought Yujeong from Heaven, too. It would've been over already.'
Second rank of the Council of Ten.
But back then she wouldn't have tolerated transgression, so she'd probably be lazing around and leaving everything to her doubles.
'I don't care! From now on I'll do as I please.'
The other executives were just as capricious, and when Nane set down the Buddha, they scattered across the world with only a handful of followers.
'If anyone complains later, I'll deal with them!'
Left to shoulder the community alone, Mortasinger ran the organization on private grudges.
'Ugly and still holding a beauty pageant? Ridiculous. The province's humans are hopeless!'
A potbellied man with whiskers like a tiger moved to Mortasinger's side.
"Does this battle have any meaning?"
He was Boridarma, who'd reached the Diamond Ascetic realm, followed by the one‑armed monk Hyega.
"..."
They weren't traditional Three Heavenly Citizens, but Heaven attracted countless outsiders.
And in any case, their realms far exceeded the ten‑thousand‑year‑old Mortasinger.
"If you're looking for meaning, go find it. If you won't follow my will, leave."
Other Everliving of similar caliber had already left the community with the Council executives.
"The search for the Way isn't elsewhere. We will stand by your side."
Mortasinger was the only Council executive who relied not on realm but on irregular methods.
"No sympathy needed. I am strong enough."
The Council of Ten was strong.
'And that's what makes her pathetic.'
A perfectly twisted person.
Not even Boridarma could break her unorthodox technique.
* * *
On the first day of the pageant they introduced each country's representative; the veiled women were revealing their identities.
"Everyone! Miss Baiden!"
Unlike her languid yawning in the waiting room, she stepped onstage like a shy girl.
"Wow! Amazing! Baiden, as expected!"
She turned slightly, blushing, and the other contestants inwardly scoffed.
'So fake. Ugh, it makes my mouth twitch.'
After a brief self‑introduction and interview, it was Miss Tormia's turn.
"Oh? I have to see this."
Shirone, scanning for terror threats as she circulated the arena, stopped and rose onto tiptoe.
"Don't be surprised! This Miss Tormia is royalty, representing her nation!"
"Royalty?"
"Please welcome! Alfred Pony!"
When the lavishly adorned Pony walked onstage, the audience cheered wildly.
"Pony?"
Shirone's eyes widened.
"What about school?"
Thoughts collided, but the conclusion was unavoidable: she was far more beautiful than in school.
'Maya and Pony. This is awkward.'
When the Arachne‑host nation's representative stepped forward, the loudest applause erupted.
"Rangi! Rangi!"
A man with hearts practically in his eyes pushed through the crowd and ran right up to the edge of the stage.
"I love you!"
He was the man who'd grabbed Shirone during the pageant parade and launched into a long speech.
"Oh my."
Rangi, used to stages, looked down unruffled, but the guards seized him.
"Pull him out! What are you doing?"
At the sight of Rangi, Shirone felt something like fate.
"You're the one I've been looking for!"
As Shirone watched that absurd scene, a chill ran down her spine.
"What's this?"
From a distance invisible to ordinary eyes, a clear intent to kill shot in a straight line.
"Snipers!"
Countless metal spheres flew toward the arena from the mountains.
'Those are…?'
If Shirone's eye was any judge, the Akra used by the mecha folk was that weapon.
"Hit the deck!"
Jestin, the only one watching the ridge, was the first to see the spheres and move.
He shoved everyone off the stage and down to safety, but Rangi, at the center, couldn't avoid it.
"What the—?"
The explosive spheres reached two hundred meters; the bombardment that filled the sky made heads spin.
"Rangi!"
The man who'd slipped past his guards leapt onto the stage and flung himself over Rangi like a tackle.
"Eek!"
As she fell back, Rangi saw hundreds of metal spheres swirling like a vortex.
'Is this a dream?'
As the brain keyed into the sense of death, particles of light bubbled in the middle of the scene like soap bubbles.
"Shi…ro…ne."
Faster than thought, light began forming Shirone.
"…ne?"
The spheres hit powerful resistance and flared crimson like popping corn.
"From as high a point as possible!"
The spheres writhed, shot into the sky like a cyclone, and exploded simultaneously.
"Ahhh! It's a terrorist attack!"
The thunderous blasts shook the ground; the audience scattered and the security team initiated protocol.
"Rangi, are you okay?"
Shirone turned; Rangi, stunned, nodded without realizing why.
"Jestin! You okay?"
Jestin rubbed his ear as he climbed onto the stage.
"Everyone's alive. But this is—"
Pony suddenly leapt up.
"Shirone! Why are you here?"
"And you? What about school?"
Pony paused, then smirked.
Jestin shouted, "They're coming!"
Two hundred people were sprinting fast from where the sniper‑style bombardment had come.
By then Pony, who'd been thinking what to say, flashed her eyes and stared at Shirone.
"It's a tactical choice."
"Is that so?"
Shirone's mouth twitched.
"You don't need me to protect you, right?"
Following Pony's hands, a rough jet of water shot up and coalesced into a mass in midair.
"You're kidding, right?"
At the same time Shirone teleported beneath the stage, and the Everliving community charged in.
"Kill them! I said kill the pretty ones!"
'What the hell is this?'
Even just seeing the piper‑equipped mecha made it clear they were subjects, but the terrorists' motive was clumsy.
"They're terrorists! Execute them all on the spot!"
Guards rushed in to fight, but the Everliving fought like a hundred men.
"Hahaha! Pathetic earth‑dwellers!"
Those with iron skeletal frames sprang like springs and kicked; armor cracked with metallic snaps.
'Probably strength‑augmentation devices…'
As Pony began to draw up hydropower, a sharp wind sliced in.
"Aaah!"
A song sounded from behind; Pony's concentration skyrocketed and her specialty, the Water Dragon, caused a flood.
"Wow."
The massive surge of water overran the slicing wind and swept even the mecha away, leaving Rangi in a daze.
"What are you staring at? You're not a local either, right? Grab someone and get ready to fight."
Pony gave orders and glanced at Maya, who had just cast an audio spell.
"Ah—hi. Long time no see."
"Tsk!"
The reunion with the one who had directly failed Pony at the graduation exam wasn't exactly pleasant.
"All right. Save the catch‑up for later—fight first."
Some snapped out of it, but most contestants were paralyzed by fear.
"Eek! Save me! What are the guards doing!"
"Take me with you! I'm important! Save me first, fighting later!"
Thinking the crowd hadn't heard, Rangi edged closer to Pony's side.
"These people are insanely strong, from what I can see."
The arena was guarded in double and triple layers, but the defenses looked likely to be breached instantly.
"You knew Shirone, didn't you?"
Rangi flinched and hunched her shoulders.
"Don't think it was Heaven's doing. I don't know which of the three of us you came to see…"
Pony's prediction had been wrong.
"At least you won't die here."
Her gaze landed where Shirone was charging straight at the enemy leader.
"What are you doing!"
A woman with a mecha emblem on her face cloth laughed as she flew into the air.
"Ha ha ha! Why? You mad because we teased the pretty ones?"
'I'll finish this in one blow.'
As she loaded a photon cannon, Boridarma and Hyega attacked from the flanks at the same time.
'Strong!'
Boridarma fell like gravity's fist and thrust his punch straight out.
"Wind‑Style Diamond Fist!"
A gust shaped like the form of his fist struck Shirone as if hammered from iron.
'It's an avatar technique.'
With a sphere of Yahweh on her palm, Shirone swept the wind fist upward from below.
"Release."
With a bang the Diamond Fist broke and seeped massively into the air.
"Huh?"
Boridarma's eyes bulged grotesquely.
'If it hadn't released it would've been Diamond Fist. But…'
Hyega charged.
"Diamond Form."
His body, able to transmute anything that touched it into diamond, was covered in sharp crystalline facets.
"Stop, Hyega!"
A streak of light struck Hyega's solar plexus dead on and the diamonds shattered meaninglessly.
"Gah!"
Hyega's face, eyes wide in shock, was revealed, and Mortasinger's laughter cut off.
"Proto‑Unification Force?"
The ultimate power the mecha sought. And the Nor called it Yahweh.