Chapter 1172 - When You've Forgotten About It
[Haru]: Sorry, it was no good
[Yurayura]: I see
[Haru]: I did try it, though
[Yurayura]: Got it. Don't worry about it
[Haru]: 'Kay
"—What is it, spacing out?"
"No, I was just thinking that, for once, a calm 'exchange' actually took place..."
"Hah?"
"No, just talking to myself."
Night. Since Sora is staying over tonight, the three girls are currently in the middle of a pajama party in Nia's room. Lonely and all by myself, I... well, I was the one who shook off their joking invitation with my reason and replied with a "No," but anyway, I headed into the virtual world alone.
And so, there was someone who had told me to show my face sometime soon—
"Talking to yourself, huh...? You seem to be carrying quite a lot of 'talk' though?"
"I'm not talking to someone who's openly amused by it."
An unannounced raid, as usual. Passing through the restricted access gate—which had been implemented out of necessity at some point—with just my face, while being teased by a familiar staff member who mouthed, "Congratulations on your engagement," I arrived at a bleak private room.
"Well, I've heard all sorts of things from Nia, though."
"I figured. Yes, yes, I knew, I knew."
I was chatting with my dear exclusive Mako (Magic Craft) artisan.
For a while, we carried on a conversation with barely any substance, covering this and that, including greetings. Sitting in an office chair and a guest chair respectively, indulging in casual conversation... it had been about thirty minutes now.
Though she teased me every now and then, she probably wasn't all that interested. She didn't delve deeply into my love life, which was embarrassingly causing a stir in the world, and while she kept me company in chatting, her attitude remained completely dry throughout, which was very typical of Kagura-san.
And then, her hands.
She was extremely relaxed, or rather, completely natural. Furthermore, while still paying attention to me, her ten fingers did not stop, performing precise work that a Mako (Magic Craft) beginner (me) could not possibly comprehend.
A radiance that resembled neither mine nor Nia's. The formula shaping the flames was condensed to the absolute limit, and the way it did its 'work' like overlapping lasers was like watching modern industry.
Indifferently, moment by moment.
I didn't know the meaning of the patterns being engraved into the work, but... not as a mere novice Mako (Magic Craft) artisan for whom comparison would be presumptuous, but as a single man, there was something I could say.
"Cool."
"Stop muttering like an elementary schooler. What if I laugh and my hand slips?"
There was no boy whose heart wouldn't be drawn to incomprehensible letters and patterns.
When I put those feelings into a pure voice like an honest elementary schooler, the handsome older sister let a handsome older sister's smile, which would only be permitted to a handsome older sister, play on the corner of her lips.
Yet her hands did not shake in the slightest.
At this rate, even if she burst out laughing, she would stubbornly keep her hands from slipping—and,
"................................ Phew..., —alright."
"Oh, could it be?"
The hands of [Asobito]-dono, whom I had been watching without getting tired of it just like our chatting, stopped. Then, letting a slight hint of fatigue and tension—which she hadn't shown even a fragment of during the work—seep out, Kagura-san exhaled a short breath once more... and picked up that from the table.
She stared at it for only an instant. After that, without hesitation,
"...Well, it's not bad. Take it."
"Thaaaaanks!"
She roughly threw the "pebble," which had completely changed its appearance since I last saw it, at me—as if she were pouring into it all the resentment that had accumulated up until this very moment today.
Then, in the palm of my hand, which caught it without fail.
"Oh... cool."
"Is that all you can say?"
The commissioned item I had left with her for a long time. The gift known as the 'Lost Echoes (Resonance Relic)' (kanji: 残響遺物, phonetic: ロストエコーズ), [Visitor from Outer Stars], which until recently had looked like a 'slightly pretty and mysterious pebble.'
By the hands of the top Mako (Magic Craft) artisan, who ranked second in the current Western Camp, its reborn form was...
"A die...?"
"It doesn't affect its performance or properties, and it's not like I designed it that way. It just naturally—became like that on its own. It's useless to worry about it."
"Eh..."
So to speak, it was a polyhedron that reflected light in various hues. As if tracing the countless patterns engraved on each and every face, I casually counted the number of faces, one, two... and...?
"By the way,"
"...?"
"You shouldn't count them. Because it's impossible."
"...???"
I tried to count them, but it was impossible.
Just as Kagura-san said. No joke, it was seriously impossible, out of the question. Even with the talent of Memory, it was impossible to correctly count the number of faces of the polyhedron in my palm.
"Eh, what, how does this work?"
"I don't know. It just became like that on its own."
"Aren't there a lot of things like that made by you, Kagura-san???"
Presumably, some kind of Arcadia-esque fantasy was at play. Shape-shifting... didn't seem like it, maybe some kind of cognitive impairment similar to the stealth cloak or whatever?
Well, at this point, I wouldn't go so far as to be frightened by a mystery of this level, but...—anyway.
With that, the first impression was good, and now, about thirty minutes after arriving. The words that had first come to mind when I visited this workshop (here) and saw this, I could finally... finally,
Allow myself to voice them.
"Where did my great axe (My Favorite) go?"
"It's right there, isn't it?"
And when I did, the answering voice was returned immediately. If that was the case, looking down at my hands again, there was only a single mysterious die—yeah, okay. I see.
"What are (what are you) you saying (saying)?"
"Stop with the good pronunciation (native). It's kind of annoying."
No, but seriously, what are you saying... Rolling the weight of the former "pebble," which was so light it barely felt like it was there, let alone easy to hold in one hand, I tilted my head, prompting a sigh from her.
"You'll understand if you use it. ...Even if you don't use it, you should have understood, right?"
"Well, yeah... well, yes. ...Wait... a second."
I had no choice but to nod at her words, but even Arcadia's specialty of brain-installation had its limits. Sure, I understood. The various things that were transmitted the moment I touched it were hammered into my head, and I was able to know what kind of thing this was, but...
"I'm not confident I understand it correctly, though."
"Saying that, you're just going to master it on the fly during the real thing anyway, aren't you?"
"I think practice is definitely a must this time..."
At best, my level of understanding was about ten percent.
While feeling the pulsation of the new armament in my palm—which shared the same direction as the previous [Asobito] armaments but had a somewhat different color to it. Toward me, who was wryly smiling with anticipation and anxiety,
"Haa... I'm sooooo tired. I'm sleeping. The exit is that way."
"Ah, yes."
Kagura-san was, as always, in Normal Operation.
[────────] Crafted Weapon: Type-2 Magic Power Evocation Materialization Armament.
The debut will be, well, sometime soon.