One-way traffic

He muttered incomprehensible words to himself, seemingly without any real thought.

We need to bring him back.

We must bring him back no matter what.

One-way passage, one-way passage... one, one-way ...

My life... cannot be without you.

I simply cannot accept a world without you, no matter how wonderful that world may be... it's still the same.

"…system."

Her soft call caused a transparent menu to appear before her.

The "Friends" section now only has Takibayashi's name left.

Upon further confirmation, that person was completely dead.

But it's okay.

The girl sat up and stared intently at the other entries on the menu.

'If a system user dies, the Soul System can forcibly resurrect the system user using certain special methods.'

"system."

She stared intently at the subtitle in front of her and asked in a low, coherent voice.

"How do we accomplish this?"

"...We are currently observing the details of the deceased."

With a series of distorted sounds like gibberish, even the screen in front of Hatsune Miku became distorted.

"Observation error. The object was killed by a power greater than the system itself, which is far beyond the level that the soul system can interfere with."

"..."

"However, the concept of 'impossible' does not exist within the soul system. The conclusion information has been forcibly modified, and a means to resurrect specific individuals is being artificially created."

With a snap—and an even more distorted sound—the content of the system's sections instantly changed erratically.

hum.

In Hatsune Miku's inventory.

A hazy, dreamlike thing then appeared.

"Forced parsing has achieved the maximum possible result."

"Reconstructing the opponent's power characteristics to the extent of 10%... Complete. Using this power structure, return to the target's death zone and enhance it with the world's power close to its strongest limit. There is a 43% chance of reviving them."

"...Forty-three percent?"

"This result is the maximum value that the Soul System can obtain in response to the erosion of enemy power. Please forgive us, host."

This is probably the first time that an omnipotent system has shown such an uncompromising attitude.

The reason is somewhat understandable; after all, those are eyes that even the strongest being in this world... the Demon God, cannot contend with.

However, Hatsune Miku doesn't care about these things anymore.

She gently clicked on the items in her inventory. These were items obtained by using the system's power to reproduce about ten percent of Accelerator's power...

No.

That wasn't a prop at all.

A pure white light instantly enveloped Hatsune Miku's entire body.

——Buzz! !

For an instant.

The girl's clothes changed to a pure white dress.

"Yes..."

She wore a white dress, matching white high heels, and had long, silver hair.

as well as.

A white halo unfolds above the head and behind the body, like angel wings with feathers.

White Wings.

However, unlike Accelerator's white wings, these white wings were not giant jet-like wings exceeding one hundred meters in length.

Instead, it is wings that appear in this world in a way that is almost transparent, gentle and delicate, yet full of a broken texture.

Tick.

It started raining heavily outside the window.

Hatsune Miku slowly got up and picked up her black and red hair clip that had fallen to the ground.

This was accompanied by her action of combing her pigtails.

…The girl's originally azure eyes turned blood red.

Just like that person.

Even if doing so leads to some consequences, what does it matter?

He is willing to give his life to protect this world and to protect her.

So... Hatsune Miku can also do things at the same level.

To save the person I absolutely cannot be separated from.

Even if it means changing the world again, it doesn't matter.

She knew very well that to save Accelerator, she had to carry this power to find the strongest fighter in the world, and then—to return to that black hole together.

That's where that person died.

So... I have to go back there to bring him back.

As for... what kind of impact will restarting the black hole have?

Ha ha.

Why bother with such things?

The girl chuckled.

The raindrops falling outside the window dripped all over her the moment she opened the balcony door.

The cold touch, the feeling of being completely soaked, and the sensation of being cleansed both body and mind.

Hatsune Miku squinted her eyes and stood alone on the balcony, bathed in the torrential rain.

"Wait for me."

She stood in the loneliest place in the world, whispering softly to someone unknown to the world, yet who had truly existed.

"I will definitely bring you back. No matter what mistakes we make next, I won't be afraid anymore."

She gently stroked the wings behind her.

They treated her with the same care and attention as if she were their own child.

"Because we're together...yes...like right now."

"We must stay together from now on."

The rain washed over the entire Academy City.

Only the girl's scarlet eyes stood out brightly in the downpour.

"Right...?"

---------------------------

It's two o'clock in the morning.

Deep within the building, where no one could reach, a man slowly opened his eyes.

"..."

He looked ahead.

The platinum-gold light materialized into a tangible human figure.

"You seem quite dissatisfied with how things are going so far."

"Even though the primary core is gone, you can still maintain your physical form?"

"The world has a much greater capacity for self-repair than we think. Look, although the core of your precious plan was sacrificed, I am still standing here intact. This shows that something has filled the void that belonged to him in this world."

"But in the end, the only reason you know all this is because I told you, right? You yourself don't have the power to repair things across worlds, you know, Aiwass."

“Oh dear…you’re right, I really don’t know what happened in this world.”

Aiwas's expressionless face twisted slightly, almost as if in a smile.

"...But that doesn't mean you were able to remember these things on your own, does it?"

For an instant.

The world around them instantly became distorted.

then.

"Have you finally agreed to show up a second time?"

Aleister's eyes immediately turned to the deepest part of the windowless building.

Aiwas's figure vanished completely.

Instead.

A young man dressed in black and white, looking quite ordinary, appeared here.

Black hair, black eyes.

It can be seen everywhere, such an inconspicuous existence.

He appeared in this world without any warning.

"Stop padding the word count. All this useless nonsense is less appropriate than just saying 'The young man's name is █ Ze'... Tsk, even 'reality' can't accommodate my existence... I'm really afraid that one day I might accidentally cause your world, the world of you typing on the keyboard, to collapse as well. That would be just too speechless."

…The young man stood in front, looking at Aleister indifferently.

An exaggerated expression then appeared on the face of that magician, whose reputation was enough to strike fear into the world.

"Given your character's established persona, you shouldn't be showing such drastic changes in expression, right?"

"I was just a little curious about what you just said."

"Even if I explained it, would you understand? Things like the fourth wall, the previous book, and this book—even if I explained them, you wouldn't understand, would you?"

Since that was the case, the young man was too lazy to explain any more obscure or difficult things to Aleister.

"My reason for coming here is simple: just to check the current situation... and it's not bad, exactly what I wanted."

"Since you have the ability to eliminate that kind of enemy instantly, why don't you take action yourself instead of deliberately causing the death of the first person who is at the core of the plan?"

As he said these words, the young man's expression changed slightly.

"You seem a little unhappy?"

“Accelerator is the core of my plan. Without him, my plan will be greatly affected. I hope you can change this situation as soon as possible.”

“You don’t need to plead like that, because his death was inevitable anyway.”

"…What?"

"Instead, you shouldn't focus on the simple present. You should look to the future. For example, even though he's dead, is this death truly the end for him?"

For this young man, what he needed was not simply to eliminate the enemy.

If he so desires, a single thought is enough to change the entire outcome.

But that won't work.

"What I want to see is genuine psychological and spiritual self-growth. If everything is solved by me, as a senior, then what is the point of growth for people today?"