kscans

Chapter 524 - Double Strike

"—Hold on, hold on, wait a minute. Calm down??? This is the real world, are you okay?"

"You're the one who needs to calm down. I understand how you feel, though."

As expected, I was panicking, and Irori shot back a low-energy retort, but anyone would be freaked out by this. Why are you all so calm?

No, on closer inspection, Sora and Nia's eyes were wide as saucers. They must have understood the flow of the conversation, but they probably hadn't expected Ashe's “disguise” to be the work of some magical, reality-defying surprise item.

That's what this is, right? The mysterious bracelet Ashe just took off is the key item here, isn't it?

"What is that, it's basically magic, isn't it? A sudden dose of real fantasy...!?"

"Ah... this brings back memories of two years ago."

"For us, it was three years ago. We had a similar reaction, though."

"It's just too far outside the realm of common sense, after all."

Then, Gossan, followed by Uni and Helena-san, reacted with extreme calm and gentleness as they watched our... well, mostly my, reaction. Including Irori, it seemed they had known about this much.

In other words, they had already accepted it.

"Ah... —I request an explanation."

"Hm."

She probably intended to give one once I calmed down, even without me asking.

Ashe, now pure white—no, she had completely transformed into an “otherworldly princess”—nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world, her usual expressionless face in place.

"First, as a premise, I won't deny the possibility that there's some occult element involved. I won't affirm it either, but since the technology's details and true nature are completely unknown, there's no doubt that it's a 'fantasy' item, just as you said, Haru."

"So it is... technology?"

It was probably not 'magic technology.' Ashe wasn't the type to play with words in a situation like this.

Given the flow of the conversation, it had to mean 'science-and-technology that's like magic.'

"It's an AR—Augmented Reality—type of Artifact."

"A word straight out of 2D fantasy..."

It certainly felt more fitting than simply calling it an item...

"The principle is unknown. But I know what it's doing."

As she spoke, Ashe clicked the bracelet back onto her left wrist. In the next instant, her hair and eyes changed back to black, a reverse playback of what happened before.

"This ring serves as a base point, and a mysterious force field covers my entire body. When that happens, every single strand of my hair seems to become a 'screen.'"

"And changing colors is a piece of cake, is that it...? Even so, that's just too absurd. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never felt the slightest bit of strangeness about it until now."

"...A month. The fact that you, who saw it from closer than anyone, didn't see through it might have boosted my confidence in this disguise."

I've always trusted it, but— Ashe's small smile seemed to be leading things in a bad direction, so I cut her off with a deliberate cough.

Her hint about our unforgivingly close proximity had earned me a sharp glare from Nia.

"So, where did it come from?"

"'Yotsuya Development'— ...is what I believe."

Now her words were faltering.

"To be precise, this was given to me by my family. As a gift from an anonymous someone."

"That's incredibly suspicious... or maybe it's not...?"

From what I gathered, her family, the Whites, must be quite a prominent lineage. I didn't know if they were all like Ashe, but they seemed to be a gathering of similar individuals.

An item that such a family would accept from an outside source and, despite the anonymity, pass on to their own flesh and blood. In other words, some sort of security check must have been cleared by the time it reached Ashe's hands.

"But there's almost no point in hiding the name. Anyone can figure out that there's only one entity in the world today capable of creating something like this."

"They're the ones who created [Arcadia], after all..."

VR and AR—'Virtual Reality' and 'Augmented Reality.' Though they were different fields, they were both modern-day examples of over-technology. With the detailed principles of both being unknown and the phenomena they produced being like fantasy, they were practically one and the same.

I glanced over at my partner beside me.

The young lady of the Yotsuya family, who had only introduced herself as [Sora] to everyone here except me and Ashe, was fidgeting as the mysterious side of her family's business was brought up.

We still hadn't talked about how Sora herself felt about her family as 'Yotsuya Development'... I just had a feeling she didn't want to be asked about it yet.

—Anyway, to sum it up.

"I see, I get it. Now that you mention it, I do have a 'precedent I can't comprehend' right beside me. If you ask me which is more unbelievable, this or that..."

Changing hair and eye color in an instant still seems more realistic.

"All things considered, what [Arcadia] is doing is way crazier. Virtual reality, perceived time acceleration technology, and all that."

"From an old man's perspective, they're both just plain magic."

I could honestly agree with both Uni and Gossan's statements. It wasn't just old men; from a young man's perspective, too, they were both straight out of a 2D world.

"So, the source is officially unknown. But without this, I wouldn't be able to walk around outside properly... so I'm very grateful. I have someone, somewhere, to thank."

As if imbuing her words with real feeling, as if showing her daily appreciation, she gently stroked the surface of the ring before undoing it with another soft click. Ashe's hair color turned white once more.

The sunlight streaming in from the window reflected off it, and my eyes were blinded, almost like a joke.

Well, I suppose so. If she's showing this appearance in the real world, just changing to the opposite hair color would be enough to deceive a considerable number of people. Her face is the same, but if she supplements that with a few props, the only commonality left would be her inhuman beauty.

Wait, that's a huge commonality, isn't it??? Knowing Ashe, she's probably handling that sort of thing just fine, without me needing to worry.

"When was it sent to you?"

"Right after the first 'Four Pillar War'—that is, a few days after the 'Ranks' were first established in Arcadia. On the very day I decided to reveal my real-world identity, including the White name, to resolve the troubles at the time."

"That's terrifying."

I don't understand the intent or anything. That's 'Yotsuya Development' for you—or more accurately, the 'God (something)' lurking behind Mr. Togo, the public face of Yotsuya.

In any case, I think I've managed to accept it. If I start questioning every little thing, I'll have an infinite number of questions about [Arcadia] itself.

What the hell is a complete virtual world? Stop drop-kicking modern technology from another dimension.

"—Ah, now that we're wrapped up, can we move on?"

Uni must have seen that I had forced myself to swallow it. He raised his hand with an unusually innocent motion and said something unclear.

What did he mean by move on?

"Iris, you said 'half of the reason' earlier, right? Is it okay to ask about the other half of the reason you were hiding it from Haru?"

"Ah... that."

She did say that—thinking so, I turned my gaze back to Ashe, who was now dazzling in more ways than one, and the girl who had just dropped a rather reality-shattering bomb had her usual composed face.

However, I've recently become able to read the subtle changes in that expressionless face, and I can tell. Hey now, Princess, why are you looking at me with that mischievous air?

"Hm... the other half is..."

"Hey, sto—"

A bad feeling prompted me to try and stop her, but it was too late.

"—Because you seemed to look at me more often when I had black hair... so I thought maybe you liked it."

"—"

"Eh?"

"Hh!!!!!!!!!!"

A surprise follow-up bomb froze me in time.

A sound of surprise escaped Sora-san.

And Nia-chan shot up from her chair with a clatter, startled. Calm down, stay seated.

"Hoh hoh?"

"Oh?"

"Hm?"

"...F-fufu."

And the finishing blow came from the three guys' smirks, followed by Helena-san, who couldn't hold it in any longer and let out a demure laugh.

Well, right. There's a lot I want to say, but for now—

"...N-no, that's not it."

I should probably start with an excuse.