Great Adjustment (5)
When Shirone asked, the same dry, flat voice began to sound again, like an auditory hallucination.
- Borbor called me that. But Mika is not my true name.
'Then?'
- I am Borbor.
Shirone's brow tightened.
- Of course, the physical body that died a little while ago was Borbor. I am her analytical mind.
'You made yourself?'
- Yes. I split off under the extreme stress imposed on her brainwaves.
Twelve-year-old Borbor watched the people on the street and understood something.
'They're not looking at me. They're looking at the selves that see me.'
The boundary of Pia collapsed, and from that moment Borbor stopped observing others.
Her gaze turned inward.
- That realization saved Borbor's life. By looking into herself she came to understand the patterns common to all humans.
'To know myself is to know humanity. It takes long thought and deep insight.'
- But life wasn't happy. She was still weak, and she had to live under a mother worn down by work and a father who turned to violence at any time.
"Drink! Hey! Bring the booze!"
Borbor could only get a little money when her mother was in a decent mood.
Having eyes that could see through other people's feelings made it not especially difficult… but—
"You worthless brat!"
The daily verbal abuse and beatings slowly poisoned Borbor's heart.
'Hatred of humanity.'
Because even her stepfather's tendencies were inside her, hatred of humans became hatred of herself.
"You damned family!"
Blood, a collapsed mother, a broken bottle. Borbor was beaten mercilessly that day.
"Die! Die!"
As her consciousness dimmed, her stepfather suddenly went pale.
"Who… are you?"
As if the person sprawled on the floor felt like himself, he was seized by an inexplicable terror.
"Who do you think I am?"
"This… crazy brat…"
Grabbing the stepfather, who was trying to get away, Borbor pulled him close and whispered in his ear.
The feeling of her thoughts—things she couldn't bring herself to say aloud—being transmitted through someone else's mouth—
"Ugh! Huh!"
The next morning he hung himself with a sheet.
Her mother came to and drank in silence, and Borbor curled up in a corner to think.
'I killed someone. Or did I die?'
With Pia's boundary shattered, her mind was rapidly dying.
And then.
- Hello? Nice to meet you.
A spark flashed in her brain and bluish electricity began to dance before her eyes.
Borbor asked,
"Who are you?"
Her mother turned her head, frowned for a moment, then lost interest.
- Well? What could I be? Hello?
Borbor smiled brightly.
"Mika."
Shirone nodded.
'So—right before Pia's boundary collapsed, you formed yourself and escaped.'
- Yes. In truth I am a very weak electrical signal, born from Borbor's brain.
'Then why tell me all this?'
Mika got to the point.
- Borbor admired you for sacrificing yourself for humanity. She always wanted to help.
'Really????'
Shirone felt a sudden ache.
- The original body died, but I remained. I think I can help you.
'Huh?'
- I don't know how such an electrical signal would be classified in the real world, but it's a very unusual phenomenon. I will seep back into the world and return to my original state, but I know I can come back.
'Hmm.'
If the electricity that sees everything were more than a phenomenon and had substance—
- Don't worry. I won't possess anyone but Borbor. Existence itself doesn't mean much to me. I just want to help you.
'What do you mean?'
- A time will come when I'll be needed. Borbor said so, so it's likely true. Of course it would have been better if she could have done it herself, but that's impossible now. It may be wishful thinking, but Mika sounded sad.
- If you need my help, call me Mika. I will respond to your voice.
'But… you're Borbor.' Maybe through Mika I could feel Borbor's life.
- I like the name Mika.
Shirone heard a long aftertaste in that short answer and decided to go along with it.
'All right. Fine.'
When the current at his fingertips faded, Shirone stood and looked around.
The stars were gone, and a cold wind blew through the gap the Three-Thousand Worlds had made.
"Mika, huh."
A faint current ran through his body.
- Yes. You called?
Shirone blinked and cleared his throat.
'No, I was just muttering. Sorry. We just parted—it's awkward.'
- It's fine. Borbor was human, but having merged with the world, I have no concept of time. A few things to tell you: Baal has climbed to the 76th floor. The positions of the other Ivory Tower worlds....
Mika transmitted the core information currently unfolding inside the Ivory Tower through brainwaves.
'This is… incredible.'
Mika, Borbor's legacy, could process all the world's information at once.
- Call on me if you need me.
The current that had been running through him vanished, and Shirone knew Mika had left.
Savoring the feeling for a moment, Shirone looked up at the ceiling and murmured.
"A mournful subject."
He remembered conversations with friends from the Supernatural Psychical Science Club back at the Magic Academy.
'Only when you reach the world's end…'
A bitter smile touched Shirone's lips.
"Still, I found you, Naid."
On the outskirts of the Holy See's forest.
Shirone's party and Eden watched the grotesque ritual happening in the village hall.
Seina felt rage toward someone there called Maximus, whom they had once revered.
'To sell your soul to Satan!' But the Sacred Sight did not activate, and the holy sword Astasia did not glow.
'Really????'
Seina slumped.
'I have no right to punish evil. From the start, my faith was false.'
Eden, watching her, said,
"Let's move our position for now. Speaking from the middle of enemy territory is dangerous."
Shirone's group slipped to the edge of the village and sat together in the shade.
"Eden, how did you get here?"
"After Habitz's assassination failed, I lost my way. So I went to my master."
Her eyes shimmered blue.
"The Sacred Sight. I used this eye to chase away the aura of evil. There's an enormous malice here."
Seina was startled.
"How?"
Could the Sacred Sight—said to be openable only by a paladin of the Rami Church—be possessed by a Yora?
"This is impossible! The Rami Church is the one who trusts Krea! Yor worship has no gods to trust."
Eden said,
"They oppose evil the same way. But their methods are wrong. The Rami Church says a messenger of God needs three things: a holy weapon, divine power, and a trained organization."
"But you must have seen on the way here—if you cling only to what you can see, you become twisted. Paladins are brainwashed, heresy inquisitors torture others after torturing themselves."
"Don't judge by only a part. Mistakes were made, yes, but it's an order that defeated evil for ages."
"Then one day the Church of Satan infiltrated the Rami Church."
Eden ignored the interruption and went on.
"Of course it's understandable. No matter how pious a clergyman is, he can't be free of Emotion Sickness. In fact, having so much to protect might make it harder. The demonfolk preyed on those gaps in the heart and slipped in."
Seina bit her lip.
"It's not just here. Among the cardinals of each nation, many have fallen to the Church of Satan. The Rami Church is the world's largest religion—so how many believers under it could worship Satan? Soon the whole world will…"
"Enough!"
Seina snapped.
"Is the world's largest religion the problem? Then what about Yor worship? Surely some Yora would have fallen to the Church of Satan too."
"No—there are no such Yora."
"That's a lie! Do you think I'd believe that?"
"The moment someone falls to the Church of Satan, they cease to be Yora. Then tell me—are the priests over there still priests to you?"
Seina couldn't answer.
"See now? The visible things—the ranks, the titles, purity, divine power. Of course you need a noble faith to gain them, but they're not measures of goodness. Evil preys on that rigidity."
Eden had once thought the same.
"The voice I heard from Satan's heart was horrific, but it was neither rare nor special. It was, rather… the most human, a resonance from the deepest place."
"I know that too."
Seina admitted frankly.
"I became a holy knight to destroy evil. But the more I did, the less I understood what good actually is. If you destroy evil, if you slay demonfolk, is that truly goodness?"
Her hands were stained with blood.
"The founder of the Yor faith, the First Yora, said: the power of good is not to annihilate evil, but to change evil into good. Therefore that power can never take the form of destruction; it can only be achieved through self-sacrifice."
"Sacrifice????"
Eden looked awkward.
"Actually, I heard that from my master. Of course I still find it hard to fully understand and difficult even to imitate, but it's the core mantra of my power. I can feel the power of goodness in you. You can surely reclaim your divine power."
Seina smiled.
Though comfort came from a Yora of another order, she now had a clear realization.
'What you see isn't what's important.' It's the heart.
"Oh, and—"
Eden turned to Shirone.
"I expected you'd be here. One reason I was dispatched to the Holy See was to tell you this. Three hundred Yora gathered and deliberated; from now on the Yor order, following Yahweh's will, will stand against the global Church of Satan."
"But I have no intention of creating a religion—"
"I know. Yor doesn't distinguish sects. That's why we can help. Only those who stand alone can love the whole world; that's the First Yora's teaching."
Iruki spoke.
"You have traits similar to Shirone."
Eden hesitated, then continued.
"Since I learned the tradition, I've felt the same. We have much in common: practicing love and universal love, valuing the invisible over the visible."
Seina asked,
"Then did that person reach Yahweh's level?"
"No. According to the tradition, he didn't even possess divine power. He had no special strength to fight evil."
"But if he defeated countless great evils, wouldn't his deeds be handed down to this age?"
"Though the records aren't exact, one thing flashed through my mind when I heard the tradition."
Eden looked at Shirone.
"The demonic sword Armand."
"Huh?"
"The object you've been carrying. I think the first owner of that blade might have been the First Yora."
"Armand…" A woman's face floated into his mind—the woman who, when asked who Armand was, had answered that she was sharpening a sword.